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Superstition and Economic Threat: Germany, 1918-1940

Marshall University

Dale O. Jorgenson

California State University, Long Beach

Economic threat predicted the level of superstition in Germany for the tumultuous years 1918 to 1940. Indexes of superstition were the number of articles on astrology, mysticism, and cults appearing in a German periodical index. Threat was measured by levels of real wages, unemployment, and industrial production. The economic threat variables significantly predicted level of superstition in two of the three superstition indexes. Experimental and naturalistic evidence concerning situational determinants of superstition are reviewed. These results support Fromm's (1941/1965) thesis that threat produces authoritarianism and corroborate Sales's (1973) investigation of U.S. archival data.

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