The Role of Supernatural Beliefs in Human Society: A Comprehensive Analysis of 114 Cultures

A recent study published in Nature Human Behaviour analyzed historical ethnographic texts from 114 human societies and found that supernatural explanations are more frequently used to account for natural events, like storms or disease outbreaks, rather than social phenomena.

These findings give valuable insights into how supernatural beliefs are developed and how they shape our understanding of the world.

According to a widely accepted theory, supernatural beliefs arose to bridge the gap in our knowledge of the world. Specifically, when a phenomenon lacks a clear cause, societies may propose supernatural agents or forces as the source of the event.

This helps to explain the emergence of supernatural beliefs and their enduring influence on human societies.

In an extensive analysis of ethnographic texts spanning three centuries, Joshua Jackson, Danica Wilbanks, and their team examined 114 societies across the globe, varying in social complexity from urban societies to nomadic groups.

Their study defined supernatural explanation as any event attributed to a supernatural agent or force, such as a god, witch, karma, or the evil eye.

Their findings indicate that nearly all of the societies analyzed documented supernatural explanations, with a higher prevalence for natural phenomena, like storms or earthquakes, rather than social phenomena, like theft or murder. Surprisingly, the frequency of events did not seem to be a factor.

The team observed that 96% of societies used supernatural explanations for disease, 92% for food scarcity, and 90% for natural hazards, whereas only 67% of societies used supernatural explanations for warfare, 82% for murder, and 26% for theft.

The team also found that supernatural explanations of social phenomena were more common in societies with larger populations, money, land transport, and technological specialization.

The researchers, Jackson, Wilbanks, and their colleagues, contend that their discoveries suggest that people are more inclined to resort to supernatural explanations in the absence of a clear human explanation for a phenomenon.

They advocate for future research to explore the possible links between supernatural beliefs and various human behaviors, such as cooperation, punishment, and social bonding.

Source: 10.1038/s41562-023-01558-0

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