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Journals / Spiritual Psychology and Counseling / 2026 / Volume: 10 Issue: 2

Exploring the Evil Eye Beliefs: A Quantitative Study

Kutlu Kağan Türkarslan(ATILIM ÜNİVERSİTESİ)0000-0002-2440-3977
Ekin Doğa Kozak(HACETTEPE ÜNİVERSİTESİ)0000-0003-0039-329X
Pages
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Publication Date
2025-06-01
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AI Summary & Key Takeaways

AI Insight
⚡ TL;DR(Too Long; Didn't Read)

The descriptive results showed that 58.65% of the participants endorsed the statement “I believe in the evil eye” and females had significantly stronger EEBs than males (d = 0.97, p <.001).

📌 3 Key Takeaways

🎯
Objective & Hypothesis:The concept of the evil eye refers to the belief that gazes of individuals with envious feelings can have harmful effects on living and non-living entities.
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Key Findings & Data:A total of 601 participants (68.49% female, Mage = 27.92, SD = 10.03) completed measures of demographic information, benign envy, malicious envy, nonreligiousness-nonspirituality, and paranormal beliefs.
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Conclusion & Impact:The descriptive results showed that 58.65% of the participants endorsed the statement “I believe in the evil eye” and females had significantly stronger EEBs than males (d = 0.97, p <.001).
🔬Design:Modeling & Simulation
📍Scope:Comprehensive Sample
⚙️Variables:The evil eye · envy · religiousness

Abstract

The concept of the evil eye refers to the belief that gazes of individuals with envious feelings can have harmful effects on living and non-living entities. On this subject, there appears to be very few quantitative studies in literature. The aim of the present study was to investigate evil eye beliefs (EEBs) in Türkiye. A total of 601 participants (68.49% female, Mage = 27.92, SD = 10.03) completed measures of demographic information, benign envy, malicious envy, nonreligiousness-nonspirituality, and paranormal beliefs. The descriptive results showed that 58.65% of the participants endorsed the statement “I believe in the evil eye” and females had significantly stronger EEBs than males (d = 0.97, p <.001). The results of the hierarchical multiple regression analysis revealed that gender, education level, perceived socio-economic status, benign envy, malicious envy, nonreligiousness-nonspirituality, and nonreligious paranormal beliefs were significant predictors of EEBs, and the regression model explained 64.20% of the variance in EEBs. Moreover, nonreligiousness-nonspirituality was a significant moderator in the relationship between nonreligious paranormal beliefs and EEBs, suggesting that nonreligious paranormal beliefs may be more important motivators of EEBs for individuals with lower levels of religiousness-spirituality. The results and limitations were discussed and suggestions for future studies were proposed.

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Cite This Article

Türkarslan, K. K., Kozak, E. D. (2025). Exploring the Evil Eye Beliefs: A Quantitative Study. Spiritual Psychology and Counseling, Volume: 10 Issue: 2. https://doi.org/10.37898/spiritualpc.1587623

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