Witchcraft beliefs and conspiracy theorizing: Evidence from Tanzania and cross-national datasets
Kinyondo A. Kuzenbayev N. Pelizzo R.
December 2024John Wiley and Sons Inc
Politics and Policy
2024#52Issue 61377 - 1398 pp.
This article suggests that since people who believe in magic and those who believe in conspiracy theories produce meaning and make sense of the world by engaging in the same process of signification, they should be more likely to have one such belief if they hold the other. To test this proposition, we perform both macro- and micro-level analyses using, respectively, cross-national datasets and an original set of Tanzanian data. Our findings from both sets of analyses reveal a strong association between witchcraft beliefs and the belief in conspiracy theories. Related Articles: Gainous, Jason, and Bill Radunovich. 2008. “Religion and Core Values: A Reformulation of the Funnel of Causality.” Politics & Policy 33(1): 154–80. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-1346.2005.tb00213.x. Richey, Sean. 2017. “A Birther and a Truther: The Influence of the Authoritarian Personality on Conspiracy Beliefs.” Politics & Policy 45(3): 465–85. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12206. Tubadji, Annie. 2023. “Youll Never Walk Alone: Loneliness, Religion, and Politico-economic Transformation.” Politics & Policy 51(4): 661–95. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12538.
belief in conspiracy theories , culture , political psychology , pseudo science , religion and politics , semiotics , sub-Saharan Africa , Tanzania , traditional beliefs , witchcraft beliefs
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Department of Geography and Economics, University of Dar es Salaam, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
International School of Economics, Maqsut Narikbayev University, Astana, Kazakhstan
Graduate School of Public Policy, Nazarbayev University, Astana, Kazakhstan
Department of Geography and Economics
International School of Economics
Graduate School of Public Policy
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