Why are witchcraft accusations so common across human societies?

Beliefs in and the policing of witchcraft have been common throughout human history. But why? Many anthropologists believe that a fear of witchcraft accusations can help enforce social cohesion, but this theory has rarely been put to the test. In 2012, a group of researchers from the UK and China set out to map witchcraft accusations in a small farming village in rural China to investigate how these labels affected cooperation and conflict. This brief animation explores the results of their pioneering study, which was published in Nature Human Behaviour in 2018. Ultimately, the team found that witchcraft labels in the community didn’t indicate antisocial behaviour. Rather, the researchers posit, such accusations may have arisen as a means of damaging sexual rivals.