Magical Thinking Is Good For You 467
Hugh Pickens writes "Natalie Wolchover says even the most die-hard skeptics among us believe in magic. Humans can't help it: though we try to be logical, irrational beliefs — many of which we aren't even conscious of — are hardwired in our psyches. 'The unavoidable habits of mind that make us think luck and supernatural forces are real, that objects and symbols have power, and that humans have souls and destinies are part of what has made our species so evolutionarily successful,' writes Wolchover. 'Believing in magic is good for us.' For example, what do religion, anthropomorphism, mysticism and the widespread notion that each of us has a destiny to fulfill have in common? According to research by Matthew Hutson, underlying all these forms of magical thinking is the innate sense that everything happens for a reason. And that stems from paranoia, which is a safety mechanism that protects us. 'We have a bias to see events as intentional, and to see objects as intentionally designed,' says Hutson. 'If we don't see any biological agent, like a person or animal, then we might assume that there's some sort of invisible agent: God or the universe in general with a mind of its own.' According to anthropologists, the reason we have a bias to assume things are intentional is that typically it's safer to spot another agent in your environment than to miss another agent. 'It's better to mistake a boulder for a bear than a bear for a boulder,' says Stewart Guthrie. In a recent Gallup poll, three in four Americans admitted to believing in at least one paranormal phenomenon. 'But even for those few of us who claim to be complete skeptics, belief quietly sneaks in. Maybe you feel anxious on Friday the 13th. Maybe the idea of a heart transplant from a convicted killer weirds you out. ... If so, on some level you believe in magic.'"
Baloney (Score:5, Insightful)
But even for those few of us who claim to be complete skeptics, belief quietly sneaks in.
Nope. Not a bit of it. In my experience, only believers believe that everyone else must secretly be a believer. The rest of us live a fact-based life.
Re:Baloney (Score:5, Insightful)
But even for those few of us who claim to be complete skeptics, belief quietly sneaks in.
Nope. Not a bit of it. In my experience, only believers believe that everyone else must secretly be a believer. The rest of us live a fact-based life.
I think you are thinking of a complete belief in magical thinking, whereas this is talking about the "magical" type of thought that "this car does not like you to use full throttle until its warmed up", or feeling anger at a beer bottle with a top thet "doesn't want to come off". If you stop and reflect of course you know its nonsense, but I bet you sometimes have those thoughts anyway.
Re:So? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Baloney (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Baloney (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't think using an occasional anthropomorphic expression in jest reflects "magical thinking." If you really believe that the car consciously dislikes going full throttle before getting warm, or the bottle has made a choice to hang onto the cap, that's magical thinking. But I don't think most who use those expressions mean them literally.
Re:So? (Score:4, Insightful)
It's impossible to persuade most of religious people no matter what you do. The only realistic way to get rid of religion is to prevent religious people from infecting the next generation and waiting for the current one to die off.
Re:Baloney (Score:5, Insightful)
Those aren't quite the same things. In the case of warming up the car, that's not magical thinking, it is thinking something wrong. Not everyone knows everything, so all of us are going to think things that are false if they are about topics beyond our knowledge, but being wrong isn't the same as magical thinking. I don't know how cars work that well. For all I know, doing that could be problematic for a valid, scientifically explainable reason. I could tell a skeptic, as a random example, that putting nitrogen on their lawn will improve its ability to stay green in the middle of summer, and since a lot of people wouldn't know one way or the other about that, it would be easy to accept that as fact and assume there's a biological explanation they simply don't know, when it is not. That does not indicate magical thinking, just that it is not humanely possible to investigate every single thing you hear, so some untrue things are going to slip past the ol' BS detector. The second example is just emotion, and everyone gets irrational emotions every now and again. Again, it isn't the same as magical thinking. The examples the article mentions (fear of Friday 13th, thinking your pants will summon friends, and the organ transplant thing) on the other hand are pretty clear examples of magical thinking. Believing in connections that aren't there and make no sense is what magical thinking is about, not simply being wrong or having an irrational moment.
Re:"Humans can't help it" (Score:5, Insightful)
...and human minds are engineered to be molded by our culture.
See what you did there?
Conundrum... (Score:5, Insightful)
Its my senses...and what mathematical and physics I take to be true.
I observe the complexity of biochemistry. The physics of life astounds me..
A reading of "Darwin's Black Box" by Michael Behe cemented my beliefs. Francis Collins' "The Language of God: a Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief" gave me what I consider undeniable evidence for belief in a creation - and a creator ( God ).
The "Big Bang Theory" reeks of "let there be light" to me. My knowledge of thermodynamics - especially the concept of entropy - tells me the Universe, left to its own, should run down.
In short, everything I see seems to demand a creator.
Whatever this is... its big... and nothing like me - I have way too many constraints and way too little intelligence - I can barely scrape up enough stuff to even have a belief, much less explain just how this stuff around me came to be.
Now, here's the rub... I have taken much flak for this.
The most compelling evidence I have, by far, that God is nothing more than a figment of the imagination.. superstition.. a "palm reader" for the gullible. A moneymaking plan.... comes from people who profess to know God!
As a scientist type, insanely curious, it drives me up the wall to see the wonders I do, then communicate to what I consider superstitious palm reader types whose prime function seems to be erecting toll booths on the "highway to heaven" to collect tithes. They get to rocking back and forth in the pulpit, one hand wagging in the air like some Hitler scene, and the other gripping the microphone so he can just about swallow the thing - and that forced pious look on their faces,. and I am supposed to take them seriously?
This is worshipping God? It looks more like a bunko scheme to me. They get a bunch of people worked up in a fervent frenzy reminiscent of a pyramid meeting, then pass the plate. If they could not hide behind "freedom of religion", I am sure they would all be facing bunko charges of defrauding the public like a bunch of gypsy fortunetellers.
Their favorite chant seems to center on whether I place my belief in science or God. I tell them there is no difference. God is Truth, and the whole purpose of science is to reveal/discover that which is true.
My tagline for years has displayed my belief. Its THEM I have little confidence in.
Maybe I worship the God of truth through study of his work ( scientifically ) and they worship Him by throwing parties in his name at someone else's expense,
I am one confused puppy.
Re:Baloney (Score:5, Insightful)
It does take a leap of faith to state "There is no God" (atheism). The sentence isn't testable or falsable.
Agnosticism, on the other hand, is truly faithless as it avoids the question of God's existence (or at least it admits it is pointless).
Magical thinking (Score:5, Insightful)
All the time, I hear 'oh, it's only the placebo effect', but have people considered how incredible that effect really is? Personally, I have to say, if there's anything that might make me consider that there is such a thing as 'magic' in the world, the placebo effect just might be it.
Re:Baloney (Score:2, Insightful)
It turns out, actually, that our senses provide a very good representation of the world around us. Apparently, in order to be evolutionarily successful, it helps to have sense that accurately report information to you, instead of living in some philosophical dream-world. Sure, there's no way to rule out some sort of large-scale Matrix scenario, but anything less than that is pretty much ruled out.
Wittgenstein is neat, but unfortunately he's largely contradicted by that bane of philosophers everywhere: empirical evidence.
Re:Madness stronger than Rationality (Score:4, Insightful)
what I have come to realize is that their "madness" is stronger than our rationality. ... Compared to their peers, they are more likely to form relationships and to marry. ... Their strong bonds allow them to coordinate effectively and gather/distribute resources. ... They network very effectively.
Worker ants have been very successful for similar reasons. Would you want to be one, though?
No, I'm not assaulting Christians there. But adopting the lifestyle of a group to which you consider yourself a non-member does seem a little insincere and amoral if you're doing it for material benefits. At that point, it becomes only a matter of how low you're willing to go. I understand there are some very satisfied people out there who's lifestyle is based on performing oral sex acts in exchange for freebase cocaine. What I'm suggesting is that if the method you've described is really how you see yourself, go ahead and do so - but know that it is, and know why it is, too. If you do something that isn't who you really are, the results are only going to be disappointing for you - it's a sort of hidden cost involved in the choice. And if it is who you really are, understanding why it is - and to what extent - can enable you to maximize the choice and increase your degree of satisfaction. There's no sense in stopping at mere free food for instance, when there are plenty of motivated drug dealers near you with whom you could form mutually-satisfying relationships.
Re:Baloney (Score:3, Insightful)
It's just language, it's just your brain, but the concept, even if you KNOW it isn't true, still defines your thought processes.
Now you can be an obstinate little bitch and insist "not at all," but here's your chance to have some insight to your own mind and not resist the implication and consider it, at least. Believing you are infallible and immune to this IS magical thinking.
Re:Baloney (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't bother saying "Oh God" when I have sex any more. I mean, it's not like the Real Doll can hear, anyway.
And I turn my stuffed animals to face the wall because they can be so judgmental.
But seriously, there is no one who can completely eliminate the kind of non-fact based thoughts known as "magical thinking" from their lives. At least not anyone psychologically healthy. There well may be some mental pathologies that create purely rational people, but I don't think they'd be people you would want to be around much. Optimism is my favorite example of "magical thinking" that is very healthy. It is every bit as irrational as believing that touching a door frame as you leave a room will protect you from harm. Another favorite type of magical thinking is empathy. I think this is why people who make a big deal out of being "skeptics" are usually so incredibly unpleasant. Especially the pop skeptics like Randi. No great scientist can be a pop skeptic, because it starves the brain.
Being human requires imagination and if you don't invest that imagination with the force of at least some level of belief, then it's too weak to be useful.
Don't fear irrational beliefs. They are a feature, not a bug. Don't put all your money on a lottery ticket because you saw "1:11" on your clock radio, but it's OK to let the mind go where it wants to go sometimes. Dreams are real. They really happen. Inspiration is real. It really happens. There is a lot of room between wearing your thoughts and impulses like a pair of comfortable baggy pants and becoming a superstitious fool or a Scientologist.
Re:Baloney (Score:3, Insightful)
Believing you are infallible and immune to this IS magical thinking.
Is believing you can read minds magical thinking? You know, if you just define everything to be X, then it's pretty difficult to get away from X. Your conclusion will be pretty difficult to disprove. This is the case here. Absolutely everything is being defined as "magical thinking." Including ridiculous things like figures of speech.
I don't know if I'm "infallible" to "magical thinking," but I don't like the "I can read your mind" vibe I'm getting from some comments here.
Re:Baloney (Score:5, Insightful)
You don't seem to understand the boundaries of "magical thinking". Optimism, empathy and dreams are not magical thinking.
Re:Baloney (Score:4, Insightful)
In the context of TFA.
Magical thinking - all of us have evolved wetware that automatically assigns personalities to inanimate objects.
Magical belief - some of us believe those personalities are real.
Those who never believe in "Magic" ... (Score:4, Insightful)
... are the same one who never experience any "Magical Moment" in their lives
I'll only say this --- I feel sad for them
confused (Score:4, Insightful)
Author seems confused about evolutionary history vs. present usefulness.
Most who research these topics are well aware of why the known human shortcomings have developed - namely that they were evolutionary useful under specific circumstances. Our preference of false positives over false negatives is certainly a survival trait if the price of a false positive is a short moment of fear while the price of a false negative is being eaten by a lion.
But that doesn't mean these traits are still of advantage today, in the context of a modern world.