A new study conducted by researchers at University of Texas has found that people begin to rely and accept superstition regarding death and illness as they start to age.
Researchers led by Cristine Legare analyzed more than 30 different studies in which people between 5 and 75 years of age from different countries. The participants were asked about their opinion to three major questions, origin of life, illness and death.
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The researchers also conducted their own study involving 366 participants in South Africa who were asked whether witchcraft or biology was responsible for a number of people contracting AIDS. The researchers found that more than 57 percent combined both witchcraft and biological explanations while just 26 percent said that it could have been due to either witchcraft or biology alone.
"The findings show that supernatural explanations for topics of core concern to humans are pervasive across cultures. If anything, in both industrialised and developing countries, supernatural explanations are frequently endorsed more often among adults than younger children", Legare said. The study has been published in the journal Child Development.
Source: Medindia
Source: Medindia
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