Magical thinking has accompanied humanity since the beginning of time. We have a natural tendency to establish cause and effect relationships without logically testing them; This predisposition is very marked in childhood and it is maintained if the context in which we find ourselves promotes it, as has happened in many cultures.
In this article We will define magical thinking and explain what its causes and functions are, according to the existing literature. To conclude, we will present some significant examples and contexts in which this type of reasoning appears regularly.
The concept “magical thinking” is used in psychology and anthropology to describe illogical attributions of causality that are made without empirical evidence especially when the person believes that their thoughts can have consequences in the external world, either through their own action or through the intermediation of supernatural forces.
Magical thinking is present in the vast majority of cultures in the world. It is a natural process, probably with a biological basis similar to that of classical conditioning, by which we rely on similarity or temporal or spatial contiguity between elements, for example, to establish a non-demonstrable causal relationship between them.
Thus, a girl who believes that if she behaves badly the boogeyman will kidnap her is falling into this logical error. The same happens with tribes that do ritual dances to invoke rain or with people who think that their wishes will be fulfilled if they light a candle and entrust themselves to a certain saint.
The belief that mind has power over matter, as if it constituted a separate entity instead of being a consequence of it, may be at the basis of many cases of magical thinking. However, it is a concept with a very broad meaning, which is why it has been used to refer to very diverse processes.
Causes and functions
Magical thinking has been attributed mainly to two facts: the contiguity between events (eg “My father died because I wished him dead the day before”) and associative thinking, which consists of establishing relationships based on similarities. For example, the Mapuche believed that they would gain the strength of their enemies if they ate their hearts.
Authors such as Claude Lévi-Strauss and Thomas Markle have stated that magical thinking has adaptive functions in certain circumstances However, when it comes to attributing causes, this type of reasoning tends to fail much more commonly than that which is based on empirical evidence.
One of the main functions of magical thinking is the reduction of anxiety. When people find themselves in a stressful situation that they cannot resolve, it is easier for them to associate the reduction of anxiety with arbitrary elements in order to obtain a certain sense of control. For example, in agoraphobia the use of “amulets” is common.
Even in today’s world, where we believe logic predominates, magical thinking continues to have a significant presence and it is even useful at times. A good example is the placebo effect, whereby the very fact of believing that a false remedy will be useful in curing a disease causes an improvement in symptoms.
We can find examples of magical thinking in a large number of everyday situations, although in some cases this type of reasoning can be a sign of pathology, particularly when the beliefs occur in adulthood and are not shared by the environment.
1. Childhood egocentrism
Between 2 and 7 years, during the preoperational stage described by Piaget, children believe that they can modify elements of the world with their minds, whether voluntarily or involuntarily. At this age, thinking is characterized by difficulty understanding abstract concepts and by egocentrism, or the inability to adopt the perspective of others.
These types of ideas appear more commonly when the death of a loved one occurs; In these cases, children tend to believe that they have been at fault in some way. However, arbitrary causal attributions and illogical thinking in general, favored by a lack of understanding of the world, are very typical in childhood.
Magical thinking is very common in children because it is inherent to human nature. As cognitive development progresses the frequency of this type of ideas is fading, at least in case the social context favors rational thinking; If this is not the case, magical beliefs can be passed down from generation to generation.
2. Superstition and supernatural thinking
Superstitions are beliefs without logical foundation or scientific evidence. They are a type of magical thinking, although it is difficult to define what exactly constitutes a superstition; For example, religions do not tend to be seen as superstitions despite the fact that the only criterion that distinguishes them is that they are shared by many people.
As with magical thinking in general, superstitions are more common when people are in stressful situations. Thus, it is typical that those who do not firmly believe in the existence of gods but do not completely rule it out try to communicate with them when they are desperate.
Some superstitions and supernatural ideas are transmitted through culture. This has happened with countless myths throughout history, and it is also common for children to be made to believe that Santa Claus, the Three Wise Men or the Tooth Fairy exist. Constructs like destiny and karma They are also good examples of magical thinking.
3. Obsessive-compulsive disorder
Sometimes the rituals characteristic of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) can be classified as magical thinking. This is more common in cases where the person is not aware that he has a disorder or exaggerates the realism of his beliefs.
In particular, people with OCD often believe, or at least They’re afraid that a misfortune can happen disproportionately serious if they do not perform the ritual; For example, someone who suffers from this disorder might think that if they dropped a lit cigarette butt on the carpet, their entire floor would burn in a matter of seconds.
4. Delusions and psychosis
Magical thinking frequently appears in delusions, whether or not they occur in the context of a schizophrenia spectrum disorder Although in delusional disorder irrational beliefs tend to have a relatively credible structure, in the case of schizotypal disorder and, above all, paranoid schizophrenia, the beliefs are more bizarre.
