A map showing country-level prevalence of witchcraft beliefs around the world.
Boris Gershman, 2022, PLOS ONE, (CC-BY 4.0)
This is revealed in a database, newly-compiled by Boris Gershman, associate professor of economics, American University in Washington DC, USA, and published today in the journal PLOS ONE.
Belief in witchcraft, demons and the power of magic words and/or thoughts to control natural objects and forces is just another manifestation of the teleological thinking of childhood which causes Creationism, and to some extent, religion when retained in an adult. It is based on the assumption that everything, including atoms, molecules and forces such as gravity have a personality and are sentient, so can be controlled by words and telepathically by thoughts ,and that there is a magical entity 'somewhere out there' who is controlling everything telepathically, or making laws which force them to comply.
There is, of course, no evidence to support that notion which has been part of human culture since the fearful infancy of our species, when a belief in evil magic seems a rational explanation for diseases that are now known to be caused by poisons, parasitic organisms, genetics, physiological disorders, dietary deficiencies or surfeits, etc - explanations which don't require magic and supernatural forces.
A belief in witchcraft is still part of Catholic beliefs, with Catholic diocese having an exorcist as an official position to carry out the ritual expulsion of the evil demons that they believe can possess people and give them supernatural powers. In many parts of thre Christian and Moslem world, especially in Africa, a belief in witches, usually women and children, is used by charlatan priests and Imams to keep the superstitious population coming to places of worship and giving them money.
Belief in witchcraft was and still used by the churches to keep a fearful population compliant. In the Middles Ages it was with regular bouts of witch hysteria, usually using women as the victims, but also frequently Jews and other non-conformist people.
In 2012, the Rwandan Football Association banned the use of witchcraft by players to try to influence the game when a player was reported to have cast a spell on his side's goal to prevent their opponents from scoring.
During the pandemic in the USA, CBN, a conservative Christian, online site reported that 'thousands of witches' were about to cast a 'binding spell' on then president, Donald Trump, supposedly to prevent him doing any more harm, but the Catholic exorcist-in-residence for Indianapolis warned them that they could be "opening up an entry point for evil in their own life.". He added, "I think evil will present itself as something good, maybe initially to attract people's attention, to draw people in, but then ultimately people are going to discover it's all about fracturing their lives".
In the UK in 2012, the child-protection authorities were unable to prevent Christian pastor, Dieudonne Tukala, from praying for a 'child witch' to die, because this is not illegal in the UK!
Fundamentalist Christian pastors accusing children of witchcraft are common in parts of Africa. As this New York Times article shows, they are not without support in America. Needless to say, Pentecostal preacher, Helen Ukpabio, draws thousands to her revival meetings. Last August, when she had herself consecrated Christendom’s first "lady apostle", Nigerian politicians and Nollywood actors attended the ceremony. She has of course written books and produced DVDs which explain how Satan possesses children, and which she sells to those credulous enough to buy them.
The same superstitious nonsense lay behind the infamous Salem Witch Trials, a result of which, 25 people (mostly women) were accused, of which 20 and executed and 5 more died in jail, with no acquittals. 50 more confessed to being witches and altogether about 150 people went to prison, with a further 200 accused, until the trials were stopped by the governor, William Phips, in February, 1693.
Curiously, although the existence of witchcraft was taken for granted by the fundamentalist Christian people of Massachusetts, most fundamentalist Christians today agree that the Salem Trials were miscarriages of justice. This despite the fact that there still exists the lorry-loads of eye-witness testimonies and evidence of close relatives of the accused as to their guilt, and even confessions, in complete contrast to the complete absence of evidence for the existence of Jesus.
and yet, about 9% of American adults still believe in witches and the power of witchcraft!
In Islamic fundamentalist Saudi Arabia (not included in the survey) the death penalty for sorcery is still in use. Fawza Falih Muhammad Ali was condemned to death for practicing witchcraft in 2006. In 2007 an Egyptian pharmacist working there was accused, convicted, and executed. Saudi authorities also pronounced the death penalty on a Lebanese television presenter, Ali Sabat, while he was performing the hajj (Islamic pilgrimage) in the country. In April 2009, a Saudi woman, Amina Bint Abdulhalim Nassar, was arrested and later sentenced to death for practicing witchcraft and sorcery. She was beheaded in December 2011.
Information provided ahead of publication by PLoS explains Professor Gersham's publication:
A newly compiled dataset quantitatively captures witchcraft beliefs in countries around the world, enabling investigation of key factors associated with such beliefs. Boris Gershman of American University in Washington, D.C., presents these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on November 23, 2022.Professor Gershman gives more detail in the abstract to his paper in PLOS ONE
Numerous prior studies conducted around the world have documented people’s beliefs in witchcraft—the idea that certain individuals have supernatural abilities to inflict harm. Understanding people’s witchcraft beliefs can be important for policymaking and other community engagement efforts. However, due to a lack of data, global-scale statistical analyses of witchcraft beliefs have been lacking.
To deepen understanding of witchcraft beliefs, Gershman compiled a new dataset that captures such beliefs among more than 140,000 people from 95 countries and territories. The data come from face-to-face and telephone surveys conducted by the Pew Research Center and professional survey organizations between 2008 and 2017, which included questions about religious beliefs and belief in witchcraft.
According to the dataset, over 40 percent of survey participants said they believe that "certain people can cast curses or spells that cause bad things to happen to someone.” Witchcraft beliefs appear to exist around the world but vary substantially between countries and within world regions. For instance, 9 percent of participants in Sweden reported belief in witchcraft, compared to 90 percent in Tunisia.
Using this dataset, Gershman then conducted an investigation of various individual-level factors associated with witchcraft beliefs. This analysis suggests that, while beliefs cut across socio-demographic groups, people with higher levels of education and economic security are less likely to believe in witchcraft.The study documents that witchcraft beliefs are still widespread around the world. Moreover, their prevalence is systematically related to a number of cultural, institutional, psychological, and socioeconomic characteristics.
Professor Boris Gershman, PhD. author
Department of Economics
American University
Washington DC., USA
Gershman also combined this dataset with other country-level data, finding that witchcraft beliefs differ between countries according to various cultural, institutional, psychological, and socioeconomic factors. For instance, witchcraft beliefs are linked to weak institutions, low levels of social trust, and low innovation, as well as conformist culture and higher levels of in-group bias—the tendency for people to favor others who are similar to them. These findings, as well as future research using the new dataset, could be applied to help optimize policies and development projects by accounting for local witchcraft beliefs.
Abstract This paper presents a new global dataset on contemporary witchcraft beliefs and investigates their correlates. Witchcraft beliefs cut across socio-demographic groups but are less widespread among the more educated and economically secure. Country-level variation in the prevalence of witchcraft beliefs is systematically linked to a number of cultural, institutional, psychological, and socioeconomic characteristics. Consistent with their hypothesized function of maintaining order and cohesion in the absence of effective governance mechanisms, witchcraft beliefs are more widespread in countries with weak institutions and correlate positively with conformist culture and in-group bias. Among the documented potential costs of witchcraft beliefs are disrupted social relations, high levels of anxiety, pessimistic worldview, lack of entrepreneurial culture and innovative activity.
Gershman B (2022) Witchcraft beliefs around the world: An exploratory analysis.
PLoS ONE 17(11): e0276872. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0276872
Copyright: © 2022 The authors.
Published by PLoS. Open access
Reprinted under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0)
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