http://mindhacks.com/2007/01/23/magic-in-mind-2/ Neuroscience and psychology news and views. Wed, 19 Jun 2013 17:54:06 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ http://mindhacks.com/2007/01/23/magic-in-mind-2/#comment-7549 Thu, 25 Jan 2007 08:29:14 +0000 http://mindhacksblog.wordpress.com/2007/01/23/magic-in-mind-2/#comment-7549 “As children we, perhaps, experience magical thinking at its strongest. Children live in magical worlds where moving trees cause the wind to blow and toys come to life after dark.”
I’m not so sure about this… it’s a common belief about children (that they hold lots of supernatural beliefs), but I don’t remember having any, at all. Was I unusual? I knew when ideas were fanciful, or make believe (while playing games), and I never confused the two.
Has anyone done research on this, or is it taken for granted that children “really believe” the fanciful things they pretend are true, for fun?

]]> http://mindhacks.com/2007/01/23/magic-in-mind-2/#comment-7548 Tue, 23 Jan 2007 20:14:45 +0000 http://mindhacksblog.wordpress.com/2007/01/23/magic-in-mind-2/#comment-7548 On this topic I recommend Believing in Magic: The Psychology of Superstition by Stuart A. Vyse. It is an excellent, readable overview of psychological research on superstition, including who tends to is superstitious, theories about why we are superstitious and more.
Personally, I am quite partial to the story that superstition yields a psychological payoff in providing a feeling of control over the uncontrollable and has its origin in inferential mechanisms gone bad.

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