In this article, the author seeks to understand the effect of witchcraft beliefs (both personal and regional) on various measures of social capital. Through empirical tests, the author concludes that witchcraft beliefs are robustly associated with anti-social attitudes in 19 Sub-Saharan African countries. Specifically, they find that witchcraft and other supernatural beliefs significantly affect levels of both generalized trust and trust for people of other religions. They also find that these attitudes are present among second-generation immigrants to Europe who originate from these countries. The worldwide Standard Cross-Cultural Sample is also used to examine relationships between witchcraft, mistrust, and other anti-social behaviors.

Derived from the fear of supernatural punishment hypothesis, this paper explores whether the prosocial attitude of a group or individuals will increase with the threat of punishment from a high god or visible supernatural agent, such as sorcerers and witches. The author found that fear of supernatural punishment did not affect prosocial behavior and suggested that religious beliefs may give rise to institutions with the task of enforcing social compliance rather than direct control.

This chapter examines the variables that are associated with the evil eye belief cross-culturally. Results suggest that the evil eye belief is significantly associated with various socioeconomic and demographic variables. All hypotheses are supported.

In this study, the authors analyze relationships between witchcraft accusations and the gender of the accused. They find that men are most often accused of witchcraft in their sample of 54 Bantu or Bantoid societies, and are particularly more likely to be accused of witchcraft by unrelated or blood-related individuals or in disputes over wealth or prestige. On the other hand, women are more likely to be accused of witchcraft in affinal relationships, particularly husbands and co-wives, and in situations related to fertility or relationships. Elderly women were also more likely to be accused of witchcraft than elderly men. The authors also examined outcomes of witchcraft accusations, finding that 81% of cases resulted in a negative outcome for the accused. They suggest that competition underlies accusations of witchcraft.

This article posits an explanation of witchcraft based on developments of subsistence type and social stratification. In small foraging bands, individuals' fear systems evolved to detect deceit and other social dliemmas. Following a transition to farming communities, the fear system could become overstimulated, resulting in accusations of witchcraft. Various factors such as centralization of political control, property rights, and urbanization mark a shift toward more collectivist forms of social paranoia.

This article is centered on a survey of instances of malicious magic and its practitioners throughout the Probability Sample Files. In the 60 culture sample, all but one culture is known to have some kind of evil magic-user. While there is notable variation in the degree of harm of malicious magic and the degree of skill of its practitioners cross-culturally, there are striking similarities between different culture's conceptions of witches and sorcerers. The author then qualitatively analyses the characteristics of these archetypes and presents a tripartite theory. This theory argues that witches and sorcerers fall into at least one of three categories: intuitive magic, plausible explanations, and demonizing narratives. No hypotheses are tested, but the article concludes with a series of ten predictions that are derived from the aforementioned theory.

This book investigates the origins of supernatural and religious beliefs. The author tests associations between various types of beliefs (e.g. witchcraft, monotheism) and various societal characteristics (e.g. mobility, class stratification). Many hypotheses are supported. Theoretical discussion is included, and the author posits that “the belief in a particular kind of spirit springs from experiences with a type of persisting sovereign group whose area of jurisdiction corresponds to that attributed to the spirit” (175).

This study investigates the thwarting disorientation theory of suicide, suggesting that the rate of suicide in a society can be predicted from thwarting disorientation traits such as men’s divorce freedom and defiant homicide.

This study tests a broad "risk response" hypothesis: environmental risk can reduce parents' involvement and care which, through its effects on children's behavioral strategies later in life, ultimately produces a larger cultural model favoring risky behavior. Examinations of extramarital sex, aggression, theft, and witchcraft support this hypothesis, leading the authors to suggest that child development is the underpinning of cultural adaptation in the face of environmental change.

This article investigates how population density affects social behavior, particularly whether it is a cause of stress in humans that manifests in pathological behavior or mistreatment of children. Analysis indicates that population density is not a cause of these behaviors, and with some variables (such as with divorce and sexual anxiety), there is a negative association with population density.