On Nov. 5, it's your choice, Part 3

New take on witchraft

Witchcraft beliefs are widespread, highly variable around the world, study finds

PLOS

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., presented these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on November 23, 2022.

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.