在變遷中的現代社會裡宗教、巫術和科學之間常存在著徵妙的消長和互動關係。科學的理性有效削弱了術數施展的空間，也對宗教產生很大的衝擊。然而科學並不能為人類社會解決許多本身的問題，加上社會變遷所釀成的不確定感，使得具神秘主義色彩的術數又應運而興。這種趨勢在許多歐美地區發生，臺灣社會近年來術數也有流行的態勢。 從臺灣社會變遷基本調查資料的分析中，作者指出了諸如教育、職業、宗教信仰，甚至年齡和性別等對民眾術數和巫術行為以及相關信仰理念的影響，實際上也就在解析社會變遷和術數流行間的關係。教育和職業代表著理性態度的強弱，職業又另外顯示了不確定感的高低，年齡表現了變遷和生涯需求的狀況而性別則在顯示依舊受父權宰制的社會現況。更重要的是從1985-1990-1995三次調查結果的分析，更清楚地看到術數行為有與時俱增的變遷趨勢。同時，教育做為世俗人文主義及理性主義的主力，確實對術數行為有抑制的作用，而有較高不確定感的職業身份者也有顯著的較高的援用術數的機率。從現有的資料，一時還無法檢證結構不確定性造成人們確定感的增加，進而成為促成更頻繁的術數行為的直接證據，因此還需針對社會心理與術數行為之間的關聯進行更進一步的探究。

Religion, occult and science often have quite subtle interaction in many rapid changing modern societies. Rationality of science always weakens the function of occultism and also has tremendous impact on religion. However, science can not help people solve all the problems they face. In addition, the increasing uncertainty due to social change, the occultism with mysticism or esotericism revives in many societies including Taiwan. Based on analyses of Taiwan Social Change Surveys, the author points out that education, occupation, religious affiliation, and even age and sex affect the probabilities of various occult behaviors. Education and occupation are supposed to measure rationality of the respondents and occupation also is an indicator of uncertainty. From 1985-1990-1995 surveys, many occult behaviors show an increasing tendency while education plays a inhibiting role for its secular humanism component and some occupations with higher uncertainty facilitate occurrence of occult behavior. Since the direct relationship between uncertainty and occult behavior can not be demonstrated in this study, more direct evidence should be examined in further research.