Magical Thinking
Sancho Panza
January 23, 2007
Do You Believe in Magic?
By BENEDICT CAREY
. . . The brain seems to have networks that are specialized to produce an
explicit, magical explanation in some circumstances, said Pascal Boyer, a
professor of psychology and anthropology at Washington University in St.
Louis. In an e-mail message, he said such thinking was "only one domain
where a relevant interpretation that connects all the dots, so to speak, is
preferred to a rational one." . . .
If the tendency to think magically were no more than self-defeating
superstition, then over the pitiless history of human evolution it should
have all but disappeared in intellectually mature adults. . . . .
In another experiment, the researchers demonstrated that young men and women
instructed on how to use a voodoo doll suspected that they might have put a
curse on a study partner who feigned a headache. And they found, similarly,
that devoted fans who watched the 2005 Super Bowl felt somewhat responsible
for the outcome, whether their team won or lost. Millions in Chicago and
Indianapolis are currently trying to channel the winning magic.
"The question is why do people create this illusion of magical power?" said
the lead author, Emily Pronin, an assistant professor of psychology and
public affairs at Princeton. "I think in part it's because we are constantly
exposed to our own thoughts, they are most salient to us" - and thus we are
likely to overestimate their connection to outside events.
The brain, moreover, has evolved to make snap judgments about causation, and
will leap to conclusions well before logic can be applied. In an experiment
presented last fall at the Society for Neuroscience meeting, Ben Parris of
the University of Exeter in England presented magnetic resonance imaging
scans taken from the brains of people watching magic tricks. In one, the
magician performed a simple sleight of hand: he placed a coin in his palm,
closed his fingers over it, then opened his hand to reveal that the coin was
gone.
Dr. Parris and his colleagues found spikes of activity in regions of the
left hemisphere of the brain that usually become engaged when people form
hypotheses in uncertain situations.
These activations occur so quickly, other researchers say, that they often
link two events based on nothing more than coincidence: "I was just thinking
about looking up my high school girlfriend when out of the blue she called
me," or, "The day after I began praying for a quick recovery, she emerged
from the coma."
For people who are generally uncertain of their own abilities, or slow to
act because of feelings of inadequacy, this kind of thinking can be an
antidote, a needed activator, said Daniel M. Wegner, a professor of
psychology at Harvard. (Dr. Wegner was a co-author of the voodoo study, with
Kimberly McCarthy of Harvard and Sylvia Rodriguez of Princeton.)
"I deal with students like this all the time and I say, 'Let's get you
overconfident,' " Dr. Wegner said. "This feeling that your thoughts can
somehow control things can be a needed feeling" - the polar opposite of the
helplessness, he added, that so often accompanies depression.
Magical thinking is most evident precisely when people feel most helpless.
Giora Keinan, a professor at Tel Aviv University, sent questionnaires to 174
Israelis after the Iraqi Scud missile attacks of the 1991 gulf war. Those
who reported the highest level of stress were also the most likely to
endorse magical beliefs, like "I have the feeling that the chances of being
hit during a missile attack are greater if a person whose house was attacked
is present in the sealed room," or "To be on the safe side, it is best to
step into the sealed room right foot first."
"It is of interest to note," Dr. Keinan concluded, "that persons who hold
magical beliefs or engage in magical rituals are often aware that their
thoughts, actions or both are unreasonable and irrational. Despite this
awareness, they are unable to rid themselves of such behavior."
On athletic fields, at the craps table or out sailing in the open ocean,
magical thinking is a way of life. Elaborate, entirely nonsensical rituals
are performed with solemn deliberation, complete with theories of magical
causation. . . .
Only in extreme doses can magical thinking increase the likelihood of mental
distress, studies suggest. People with obsessive-compulsive disorder are
often nearly paralyzed by the convictions that they must perform elaborate
rituals, like hand washing or special prayers, to ward off contamination or
disaster. The superstitions, perhaps harmless at the outset, can grow into
disabling defense mechanisms.
Those whose magical thoughts can blossom into full-blown delusion and
psychosis appear to be a fundamentally different group in their own right,
said Mark Lenzenweger, a professor of clinical science, neuroscience and
cognitive psychology at Binghamton, part of the State University of New
York. "These are people for whom magical thinking is a central part of how
they view the world," not a vague sense of having special powers, he said.
"Whereas with most people, if you were to confront them about their magical
beliefs, they would back down."
Reality is the most potent check on runaway magical thoughts, and in the
vast majority of people it prevents the beliefs from becoming anything more
than comforting - and disposable - private rituals. When something important
is at stake, a test or a performance or a relationship, people don't simply
perform their private rituals: they prepare. And if their rituals start
getting in the way, they adapt quickly. . . .
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/23/health/psychology/23magic.html?_r=1&8dpc&oref=slogin
[log-in required]