Gone are the days when people were burned for being witches. Yet despite the advances the scientific worldview has made since the Middle Ages, a new study shows that more than 40 percent of people still believe in witchcraft. Although the prevalence of this belief varies widely between countries, the researchers say there are several cultural, political and economic factors that seem to encourage such beliefs.
Responses from more than 140,000 people in 95 countries and territories were combined into one large dataset, allowing the study authors to build a broad picture of the state of witchcraft beliefs worldwide. Overall, 43 percent of respondents agreed with the statement that “certain people can cast curses or spells to cause bad things to happen to someone.”
“A simple calculation based on adult population data yields close to a billion believers in only the 95 countries in the sample, but this is certainly an undercount, at least for some respondents, due to the sensitivity of the witchcraft question,” the researchers wrote. However, they explain that some countries have much more witchcraft beliefs, while others have far fewer believers.
9 percent in Sweden, 90 percent in Tunisia.
For example, only nine percent of Swedes say they find witchcraft believable, while in Tunisia 90 percent of people say they believe in witches.
However, the study’s authors are trying to clarify and understand the social function of witchcraft beliefs, rather than simply calling such beliefs nonsense; “Throughout the ages, the most obvious purpose of witchcraft beliefs has been to provide a final explanation for the unfortunate events in people’s lives and thus help them cope,” they say.
Accordingly, they say such beliefs are “associated with exposure to certain shocks, such as agricultural drought and unemployment.” In addition, the researchers say the concept of witchcraft helps “maintain order and harmony in the absence of effective governance mechanisms” and is therefore more prevalent in countries with weak institutions. They also note that “these potential functions or benefits come at a high cost, possibly destroying the social fabric and contributing to anxiety and economic recession.”
The study’s authors, who analyzed different approaches to combating these harms, say that trying to educate people about the witchcraft fallacy will likely backfire. For example, they note that while a person can fully understand that diseases are caused by mosquito bites, the same person can attribute their chances of being bitten to witchcraft.
The solution is not to ban
But researchers also warn against banning such beliefs. Because they say that doing so will bring people closer to such beliefs.
Therefore, according to the study’s authors, the best approach is to focus on creating social institutions that provide greater security, protect people from physical and economic disasters, thereby reducing the need for witchcraft beliefs as a coping strategy.
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