The psychological community is riddled with theories on childhood development. Freud and Jung had their thoughts. Erikson, Bowlby, and Bandura contributed their perspectives. Today I’ll look a little closer at Piaget. It’s my understanding that Jean Piaget made the term “magical thinking” popular in development of his Theory of Cognitive Development.
If you look on britannica.com, the definition of magical thinking is “Magical thinking, the belief that one’s ideas, thoughts, actions, words, or use of symbols can influence the course of events in the material world”.
If you look at an article about magical thinking on psychology today, it defines magical thinking at “believing that one event happens as a result of another without a plausible link of causation”.
(Source: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/happiness-in-world/200911/magical-thinking)
Magical thinking can be helpful and produce real world benefits. For example, in a study done in 2010, Damish and Mussweiler found that superstition rituals increased participant’s confidence thereby improving their performance.
(Source: Damisch L, Stoberock B, Mussweiler T. Keep your fingers crossed!: how superstition improves performance. Psychol Sci. 2010;21(7):1014-20. doi:10.1177/0956797610372631)
My perspective on magical thinking is that it is simply a persons way of attempting to understand the world around them. Piaget theorized it is most common in children between the ages of 2 and 7. Other theorists say this thinking wanes around age 10. I hear magical thinking from adults day in and day out and even engage in it occasionally myself. I do not think it just stops as we age. I think we continually attempt to make sense of the world around us and like most things, moderation is the recommended dose.
Too much magical thinking can lead to problems in our day to day life. Individuals diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder and schizophrenia are commonly seen as engaging in too much magical thinking. The reason I say too much is because it can be problematic when the ritual associated with the belief interferes with our normal routines, work, or social relations. If I hold a magical thought that stepping on cracks will break my back and experience distress when I try walking my dog because I carefully avoid the cracks and ruminate on what bad could happen if I do step on a crack…well that’s not helpful.
The prompting event for this post was my three year old niece engaging in magical thinking. Stressed out from the isolation of COVID-19, but aware people are getting shots to vaccinate and protect themselves, and not really comprehending all that those things entail…her developing mind came up with this solution, “I’ll go get ten shots and then this will be over”. The idea there is that by sacrificing her own wellbeing, she will save the world from this frustrating isolation. Unfortunately, her kind offer is not going to produce the desired results. Her mother provided validation and explained that it does not work like that. I’m sure she is already contemplating how to achieve world peace and thankfully she has a mother that lets her think/feel/read/speak without judgment. If that magical thought was met with judgment or disdain, the message a developing mind receives is not so pleasant. A good topic for another time.
For now, let yourself think a little magically and see what your mind comes up with.
