What is magical thinking?

Magical thinking is a concept widely used to describe ways of knowing the world that do not conform to culturally accepted and evidence-based laws of cause-effect relationships (e.g. magic, superstition, the paranormal, astrology, reincarnation, soul, spirit, the effects of consciousness on matter, etc.) (Kiken, 2019, Uttinan, 2015).

Magical thinking is widespread and relatively harmless. Moreover, magical thinking is known to occur in people from all walks of life, including educated and emotionally mature adults, including socially recognised and valued scientists (Risen, 2016).

Magical thinking and health

In some cases, reliance on magical thinking can contribute to a person's vulnerability and defencelessness, for example when making health and medical decisions (Kiken, 2019).

Scientific thinking and education are known to help people make appropriate decisions about their healthcare, including when and why use complementary and alternative medicine (Kiken, 2019). 

However, research shows that magically minded people tend to have a relatively low understanding (little knowledge) of the physical workings of the world and are less likely to be scientifically minded (Lindeman & Svedholm-Häkkinen, 2016). Similarly, a small evidence base suggests that magical thinking beliefs are associated with more supportive attitudes towards the use of complementary and alternative medicine (Bryden et al., 2018).

Interesting conclusion! Scientific thinking helps to make decisions about complementary and alternative medicine, and magical thinking can still be characteristic of a scientifically minded person. However, not all magically minded individuals are also scientifically minded, and this in turn increases the health risks.

Magical thinking and entrepreneurship

Successful entrepreneurship is known to require constant focus and mental resilience in the face of future uncertainty. A very interesting 2020 study shows that magical thinking is often an essential resource for entrepreneurs to maintain a vision for the future of their business that is sometimes beyond rational expectations and perspectives. Future-oriented magical thinking helps to find a sense of purpose, to overcome doubt and uncertainty (Ganzin et al., 2020).

Magical thinking, which in this context has an important link to spiritual beliefs, including realisation in the wider Cosmic System, plays an important but as yet little recognised role in business cognition (Ganzin et al., 2020).

The study shows that magical thinking is a supportive tool in motivating entrepreneurs to act in the face of uncertainty.Entrepreneurs adopt a magical orientation not to reject economic rationality, but because past experience and knowledge do not provide the resources to justify their actions. In contrast, a spiritual orientation offers a supportive and motivating belief system - an ideological fortress in which it is possible to justify one's behaviour, distinct identity or role in the existing order of things (Ganzin et al., 2020).

This aspect is marked by the entrepreneur's willingness to surrender to the unknown, trusting intuition and feeling that entrepreneurship is a way of serving a higher purpose (Ganzin et al., 2020).

Magical Thinking and Life or the Meaningful Functions of Magical Thinking

First, magical thinking makes the world a more interesting and exciting place. It encourages play, imagination, fantasy, creativity (Subbotsy, 2004).

Secondly, magical thinking can help and comfort people in circumstances beyond our rational control. Although magical thinking is an illusion, it does propel people to higher achievements and helps them cope with the anxieties and unpredictability of everyday life. For example, it is known that in more serious situations, such as terminal illness, people tend to turn more to magical thinking, as it is sometimes the only way to consolidate and maintain hope. The alternative is hopelessness and despair (Subbotsy, 2004).

Third, magical thinking makes the inanimate world more comprehensible and humane. When a car does not 'listen' to us, we can talk to it - this form of magical thinking is widely used in socially appropriate ways, for example in advertising (Subbotsy, 2004).

Fourth, magical thinking forms the basis of how our individual and social minds work. Our emotional and communicative reactions are based on the laws of sympathetic magic. Emotional 'contagion', hypnotic statements that linger in the mind, magical healing and the placebo effect are just a few examples. Magical thinking is important in establishing and maintaining human relationships. In partnerships, in the family, we often perform small rituals that from a strictly rational point of view are simply unnecessary, and their disappearance from the relationship is usually a bad sign for the quality of the relationship (Subbotsy, 2004).

Concluding...

Like any element of the psyche, magical thinking has a function.

Just as rational thinking helps us to cope with problems in the physical world, magical thinking comes to the aid of personal, social and emotional problems. Moreover, rational and magical thinking are not mutually exclusive. They go together (Subbotsy, 2004).

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Sources:

Bryden, G. M., Browne, M., Rockloff, M., Unsworth, C. (2018). Anti-vaccination and pro-CAM attitudes both reflect magical beliefs about health. Vaccine, 36(9), 1227-1234.

Ganzin, M., Islam, G., & Suddaby, R. (2020). The Role of Magical Thinking in Future-Oriented Sensemaking. Organisation Studies, 41(1), 77-102.

Kiken, L. G. (2019). Mind-body therapy use and magical thinking. Social Science & Medicine, 237, 112340.