Do you believe in magic?

The Power of Superstition

Children exhibit a form of magical thinking by about 18 month, when they begin to create imaginary words while playing. By age 3, most know the difference between fantasy and reality, though they usually still believe in Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy. By age of 8, and sometimes earlier, they have mostly pruned away these beliefs, and the line between magic and reality is about as clear to them as it is for adults


By BENEDICT CAREY
Source: New York Times


Rachel Riskind nonetheless has a good feeling about her chances for admittance to the University Of Michigan's graduate program in psychology. On a recent afternoon, she went out to lunch in Austin, Texas, where she lives. Walking to the restaurant, she saw a woman stroll by with a Michigan umbrella.

"I felt it was a sign; you almost never see Michigan stuff here", Ms. Riskind, 22, said. "And I guess I think that has given me a kind of confidence."

Psychologists and anthropologists have typically turned to faith healer, tribal cultures or New Age spiritualists to study the underpinnings of belief in superstition or magic powers. New researches demonstrates that habit of so-called magical thinking- the belief, for instance, that whishing harm on a loathed colleague or relative might make him sick- and far more common than papule acknowledge.

These habits have little to do with religious faith, which is much more complex because it involves large questions of morality, community and history. But magical thinking underlies a vast, often unseen universe of small rituals that ac-company people through every waking hour.

The appetite for such belief appears to be rooted in the brain. The sense of having special powers buoys people in threatening situations, and helps soothe everyday fears and ward off mental distress. In excess, it can lead compulsive or delusional behavior. This emerging portrait of magical thinking helps explain why people who fashion themselves skeptics cling to odd rituals that seem to make no sense.

Children exhibit a form of magical thinking by about 18 month, when they begin to create imaginary words while playing. By age 3, most know the difference between fantasy and reality, though they usually still believe in Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy. By age of 8, and sometimes earlier, they have mostly pruned away these beliefs, and the line between magic and reality is about as clear to them as it is for adults.

It is no coincidence, some social scientists believe, and that youngsters begin learning about faith around the time they begin to give up on wishing. "The point at which the culture withdraws support for belief in Santa and the Tooth Fairy is about the same time it introduces children to prayer", said Jacqueline Woolley, a professor of psychology at the University of Texas. "The mechanism is already there, kids have already spent time believing that wishing can make things come true, and they're just losing faith in the efficacy of that."

I series of experiments published last summer, psychologists at Princeton and Harvard showed how easily it was to elicit magical thinking in well-educational young adults. In one instance, the researches had participants watch a blindfolded person play an arcade basketball game, and visualize success for the player. The game was rigged: the shooter could see through the blind fold.

On questionnaires, the spectators said later that they had probably had some role in the shooter's success.

"The question is why people create this illusion of magic 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 silent to us" - and thus we are likely to overestimate their connection to outside events.

But 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.