According to a new global study that involved more than 140,000 people, there is widespread belief in witchcraft around the world.
The study notes that it is "most certainly an undercount" because of the sensitivity of discussing witchcraft for some respondents.
Forty percent of those who took the survey said they believe in some version of witchcraft, but the local prevalence of those beliefs seems to vary widely.
In Tunisia, 90 percent of people reported a belief in witchcraft, compared with 9 percent in Sweden.
Although witchcraft beliefs are more common in some countries than in others, they still cut across socio-demographic groups in each country.
A lack of data has made it difficult for researchers to conduct analyses of witchcraft beliefs around the world.
A new dataset from in-person and telephone surveys was built by Gershman.
Respondents were asked about their broader religious beliefs.
There were many different ways in which pollsters asked about magic and witchcraft.
Gershman writes that all the surveys asked respondents if they believed in the "evil eye" or if certain people could cause bad things to happen to someone.
The definition of witchcraft is captured in the last part of the question, and thanks to its prevalence in these surveys, it provides a unique way to identify witches.
Forty percent of respondents said they believed in this description of witchcraft.
It would take about 1 billion people to represent the total population of the countries.
Gershman can look at the links between witchcraft belief and a variety of individual level and country level factors.
People with more education and economic security were less likely to believe in witches.
Affiliation with Christianity or Islam didn't make a difference when it came to the correlation between the beliefs of witches and religiosity.
At the national level, witchcraft beliefs are associated with weak institutions, low levels of social trust, and high levels of in-group bias, as well as with conformist culture and higher levels of in-group bias.
He says that the study shows that the belief in witches is still widespread.
Their prevalence is related to a number of different factors.
Gershman acknowledges that more research is needed to gain a global perspective on witches. The lack of data from China and India is one of the limitations of the new study.
Practical applications for studying witchcraft beliefs can be found. A better understanding of these beliefs may help protect women accused of witchcraft.
It's important for governments, researchers, or aid groups to understand the beliefs of witches.
Monica Hunter Wilson spoke about the need for research like this.
Wilson believes that the comparative analysis of witch beliefs is one of the keys to the understanding of society.
The study was published in a peer reviewed journal.
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