Magical thinking

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Magical thinking, or superstitious thinking,

fallacious thinking and is a common source of invalid causal inferences.[3][5] Unlike the confusion of correlation with causation, magical thinking does not require the events to be correlated.[3]

The precise definition of magical thinking may vary subtly when used by different theorists or among different fields of study. In anthropology, the posited causality is between religious ritual, prayer, sacrifice, or the observance of a taboo, and an expected benefit or recompense.

In psychology, magical thinking is the belief that one's thoughts by themselves can bring about effects in the world or that thinking something corresponds with doing it.[6] These beliefs can cause a person to experience an irrational fear of performing certain acts or having certain thoughts because of an assumed correlation between doing so and threatening calamities.[1]

In

obsessive-compulsive disorder.[8][9][10]

Types

Direct effect

euphemisms instead of certain words, or the belief that to know the "true name" of something gives one power over it, or that certain chants, prayers, or mystical phrases will bring about physical changes in the world. More generally, it is magical thinking to take a symbol to be its referent or an analogy
to represent an identity.

Sigmund Freud believed that magical thinking was produced by cognitive developmental factors. He described practitioners of magic as projecting their mental states onto the world around them, similar to a common phase in child development.[12] From toddlerhood to early school age, children will often link the outside world with their internal consciousness, e.g. "It is raining because I am sad."

Symbolic approaches

Another theory of magical thinking is the symbolic approach. Leading thinkers of this category, including Stanley J. Tambiah, believe that magic is meant to be expressive, rather than instrumental. As opposed to the direct, mimetic thinking of Frazer, Tambiah asserts that magic utilizes abstract analogies to express a desired state, along the lines of metonymy or metaphor.[13]

An important question raised by this interpretation is how mere symbols could exert material effects. One possible answer lies in

John L. Austin's concept of performativity, in which the act of saying something makes it true, such as in an inaugural or marital rite.[14] Other theories propose that magic is effective because symbols are able to affect internal psycho-physical states. They claim that the act of expressing a certain anxiety or desire can be reparative in itself.[15]

Causes

A healing ritual (the laying on of hands)

According to theories of anxiety relief and control, people turn to magical beliefs when there exists a sense of uncertainty and potential danger, and with little access to logical or scientific responses to such danger. Magic is used to restore a sense of control over circumstance. In support of this theory, research indicates that superstitious behavior is invoked more often in high stress situations, especially by people with a greater desire for control.[16][17]

Another potential reason for the persistence of magic rituals is that the rituals prompt their own use by creating a feeling of insecurity and then proposing themselves as precautions.

obsessive-compulsive rituals — a possible clinical model for certain forms of magical thinking — focus shifts to the lowest level of gestures, resulting in goal demotion. For example, an obsessive-compulsive cleaning ritual may overemphasize the order, direction, and number of wipes used to clean the surface. The goal becomes less important than the actions used to achieve the goal, with the implication that magic rituals can persist without efficacy because the intent is lost within the act.[18] Alternatively, some cases of harmless "rituals" may have positive effects in bolstering intent, as may be the case with certain pre-game exercises in sports.[19]

Some scholars believe that

Robin Horton suggests that engaging in magical practices surrounding healing can relieve anxiety, which could have a significant positive physical effect. In the absence of advanced health care, such effects would play a relatively major role, thereby helping to explain the persistence and popularity of such practices.[21][22]

Phenomenological approach

Ariel Glucklich tries to understand magic from a subjective perspective, attempting to comprehend magic on a phenomenological, experientially based level. Glucklich seeks to describe the attitude that magical practitioners feel what he calls "magical consciousness" or the "magical experience". He explains that it is based upon "the awareness of the interrelatedness of all things in the world by means of simple but refined sense perception."[23]

Another phenomenological model is that of Gilbert Lewis, who argues that "habit is unthinking". He believes that those practicing magic do not think of an explanatory theory behind their actions any more than the average person tries to grasp the pharmaceutical workings of aspirin.

causal
theory behind it.

Social

Anthropology

In

lucky charm or ritual, for example, is assumed to increase the probability that one will perform at a level so that one can achieve a desired goal or outcome.[25]

Researchers have identified two possible principles as the formal causes of the attribution of false causal relationships:

Prominent Victorian theorists identified associative thinking (a common feature of practitioners of magic) as a characteristic form of irrationality. As with all forms of magical thinking, association-based and similarities-based notions of causality are not always said to be the practice of magic by a magician. For example, the doctrine of signatures held that similarities between plant parts and body parts indicated their efficacy in treating diseases of those body parts, and was a part of Western medicine during the Middle Ages. This association-based thinking is a vivid example of the general human application of the representativeness heuristic.[26]

Azande tribe[29]
believe that rubbing crocodile teeth on banana plants can invoke a fruitful crop. Because crocodile teeth are curved (like bananas) and grow back if they fall out, the Azande observe this similarity and want to impart this capacity of regeneration to their bananas. To them, the rubbing constitutes a means of transference.

Sir James Frazer (1854–1941) elaborated upon Tylor's principle by dividing magic into the categories of sympathetic and contagious magic. The latter is based upon the law of contagion or contact, in which two things that were once connected retain this link and have the ability to affect their supposedly related objects, such as harming a person by harming a lock of his hair. Sympathetic magic and homeopathy operate upon the premise that "like affects like", or that one can impart characteristics of one object to a similar object. Frazer believed that some individuals think the entire world functions according to these mimetic, or homeopathic, principles.[30]

In How Natives Think (1925),

fallacy, in which people observe that x is followed by y, and conclude that x has caused y.[32]
He believes that this fallacy is institutionalized in native culture and is committed regularly and repeatedly.

Despite the view that magic is less than rational and entails an inferior concept of causality, in The Savage Mind (1966), Claude Lévi-Strauss suggested that magical procedures are relatively effective in exerting control over the environment. This outlook has generated alternative theories of magical thinking, such as the symbolic and psychological approaches, and softened the contrast between "educated" and "primitive" thinking: "Magical thinking is no less characteristic of our own mundane intellectual activity than it is of Zande curing practices."[33][n 1]

Cultural differences

ontological idioms lead to cultural practices which seem illogical to observers whose own culture has correspondingly contrasting norms. He explains, "[T]he layman's grounds for accepting the models propounded by the scientist are often no different from the young African villager's ground for accepting the models propounded by one of his elders."[34]

Along similar lines, Michael F. Brown argues that the

magic, science, and religion, and focus on the similarities in magical, technical, and spiritual practices. Brown even ironically writes that he is tempted to disclaim the existence of 'magic.'[36]

One theory of substantive difference is that of the open versus closed society. Horton describes this as one of the key dissimilarities between traditional thought and Western science. He suggests that the scientific worldview is distinguished from a magical one by the scientific method and by skepticism, requiring the falsifiability of any scientific hypothesis. He notes that for native peoples "there is no developed awareness of alternatives to the established body of theoretical texts."[37] He notes that all further differences between traditional and Western thought can be understood as a result of this factor. He says that because there are no alternatives in societies based on magical thought, a theory does not need to be objectively judged to be valid.

In children

According to

developmental psychologist, came up with a theory of four developmental stages
.

Children between ages 2 and 7 would be classified under his

logical thinking
. A child's thinking is dominated by perceptions of physical features, meaning that if the child is told that a family pet has "gone away to a farm" when it has in fact died, then the child will have difficulty comprehending the transformation of the dog not being around anymore. Magical thinking would be evident here, since the child may believe that the family pet being gone is just temporary. Their young minds in this stage do not understand the finality of death and magical thinking may bridge the gap.

Grief

It was discovered that children often feel that they are responsible for an event or events occurring or are capable of reversing an event simply by thinking about it and wishing for a change: namely, "magical thinking".[39] Make-believe and fantasy are an integral part of life at this age and are often used to explain the inexplicable.[40][41]

According to Piaget, children within this age group are often "

egocentric", believing that what they feel and experience is the same as everyone else's feelings and experiences.[42] Also at this age, there is often a lack of ability to understand that there may be other explanations for events outside of the realm of things they have already comprehended. What happens outside their understanding needs to be explained using what they already know, because of an inability to fully comprehend abstract concepts.[42]

Magical thinking is found particularly in children's explanations of experiences about death, whether the death of a family member or pet, or their own illness or impending death. These experiences are often new for a young child, who at that point has no experience to give understanding of the ramifications of the event.[43] A child may feel that they are responsible for what has happened, simply because they were upset with the person who died, or perhaps played with the pet too roughly. There may also be the idea that if the child wishes it hard enough, or performs just the right act, the person or pet may choose to come back, and not be dead any longer.[44]

When considering their own illness or impending death, some children may feel that they are being punished for doing something wrong, or not doing something they should have, and therefore have become ill.[45] If a child's ideas about an event are incorrect because of their magical thinking, there is a possibility that the conclusions the child makes could result in long-term beliefs and behaviours that create difficulty for the child as they mature.[46]

Related terms

"Quasi-magical thinking" describes "cases in which people act as if they erroneously believe that their action influences the outcome, even though they do not really hold that belief".[47] People may realize that a superstitious intuition is logically false, but act as if it were true because they do not exert an effort to correct the intuition.[48]

See also

Notes

  1. Azande practice of curing epilepsy by eating the burnt skull of a red bush monkey, based on the apparent similarity of epileptic movements and those of the monkeys, was discussed in Evans-Pritchard 1937
    , p. 487.

References

  1. ^ a b c d Bennett, Bo. "Magical Thinking". Logically Fallacious. Retrieved 20 May 2020.
  2. ^ a b Carroll RT (12 Sep 2014). "Magical thinking". The Skeptic's Dictionary. Retrieved 20 May 2020.
  3. ^ .
  4. .
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  6. ^ Colman, Andrew M. (2012). A Dictionary of Psychology (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press.
  7. .
  8. .
  9. .
  10. ^ Barkataki B (2019). Explaining obsessive-compulsive symptoms? A transcultural exploration of magical thinking and OCD in India and Australia (PhD). Curtin university.
  11. ^ Glucklich 1997, pp. 59–61, 205–12
  12. ^ Glucklich 1997, pp. 53–5
  13. ^ Brown, Michael F. (1993). Thinking About Magic. Greenwood Press. pp. 5–7.
  14. ^ Glucklich 1997, pp. 60–2
  15. ^ Glucklich 1997, pp. 49–53
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  19. ^ "Why Rituals Work". Scientific American. Retrieved 2015-12-17.
  20. ^ Glucklich 1997, pp. 50–68
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  23. ^ Glucklich 1997, p. 12
  24. ^ Lewis, Gilbert. The Look of Magic. University of Cambridge.
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  26. ^ Nisbett, D.; Ross, L. (1980). Human Inference: Strategies and Shortcomings of Social Judgment. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. pp. 115–8.
  27. ^ Glucklich, Ariel (1997). The End of Magic. Oxford University Press. pp. 32–3.
  28. ^ Evans-Pritchard, E. E. (1977). Theories of Primitive Religion. Oxford University Press. pp. 26–7.
  29. ^ Evans-Pritchard, E. E. (1937). Witchcraft, Magic, and Oracles Among the Azande. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
  30. ^ Frazer, James (1915) [1911]. The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (3rd ed.). London: Macmillan.
  31. ^ Lévy-Bruhl, Lucien (1925). How Natives Think. Knopf. p. 36.
  32. ^ Lévy-Bruhl 1925, p. 76
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  34. ^ Horton 1967b, p. 171
  35. ^ Brown, Michael F. (1986). Tsewa's Gift: Magic and Meaning in an Amazonian Society. University of Alabama Press.
  36. ^ Brown 1993, p. 2
  37. ^ Horton 1967b, p. 155
  38. ^ Piaget, Jean (1929). The child's conception of the world. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
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  41. ^ Webb, N. (2010). "The child and death". In Webb, N.B. (ed.). Helping Bereaved Children: A Handbook for Practitioners. New York: Guildford. pp. 5–6.
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  43. ^ Webb 2010, p. 51
  44. ].
  45. .
  46. .
  47. .
  48. .

Further reading

External links