Journal of Social, Evolutionary, and Cultural Psychology www.jsecjournal.com - 2010, 4(1), 18-33. www.jsecjournal.

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Original Article

THE MAGIC THAT BINDS US: MAGICAL THINKING AND INCLUSIVE FITNESS
D. Thomas Markle. Educational Psychology & Instructional Technology The University of Georgia Abstract Magical thinking has often been viewed as a cognitive mistake rooted in a poor understanding of causality, which can be fixed with education and experience. However, an alternative interpretation is that magical thinking may be highly adaptive in specific situations. This article attempts a theoretical argument that although magical thinking may be illogical, it does provide survival benefits, specifically the modification of anxiety. Based on the previous assumption there would exist an asymmetric survival cost between magical and logical thinking for situations dealing with unmanageable threats. Given that unmanageable threats cause anxiety, and are unlikely to be influenced by human action, and anxiety has a negative influence on an individuals health, memory, and task performance, we can conclude magical thinking could be viewed as something more than a cognitive mistake. Instead magical thinking should be viewed as an adaptive and functional cognitive tool which is an evolutionary by-product or adaptation. Keywords: magical thinking, superstition, anxiety, stress, domain knowledge, fitness, evolution. The Magic that Binds us: Magical Thinking and Inclusive Fitness An Opening Note on Magical Thinking The study of magical thinking is complex and muddled, with individual researchers often using the same connotative terms, but implying with their usage different denotative meanings. Therefore as an attempt to bypass confusion I will use the term active magical thinking, to refer to beliefs about causality in which individuals believe they have some degree of control, whether that be a personal control or through influencing a supernatural agent to act on the believers behalf, and passive magical

AUTHOR NOTE: Please address any correspondence to D. Thomas Markle, Educational Psychology & Instructional Technology, 329 Aderhold, The University of Georgia, Athens Ga, 30605. Email: dmarkle@uga.edu

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thinking to refer to events which are believed to be magical in nature, but happen without the need of the believers action. The general term magical thinking will be used when no distinction is necessary. (See Appendix A for further discussion and examples of each). For this article, active magical thinking is the belief that ones thoughts, words, or actions will produce an outcome which defies the normal laws of cause and effect within a specific domain of knowledge. The definition comes from, Lindeman & Aarnio (2007), who have skillfully framed the process of magical thinking as a category mistake within the construct of mental domains. Yet what still needs to be asked is, what possible benefits come from the category mistakes, indicative of magical thinking? It makes little sense that the human mind would evolve in a manner to retain such a blatant cognitive error, unless it provided (even as an unintended byproduct of other mental modules) some increase in fitness. In my opinion there is strong, albeit incomplete, evidence to suggest that at least one main outcome of these errors is to provide an individual a means to have greater control over anxiety. Introduction Everyday people, young and old, from all parts of the world make the same logical errors. They choose to perform actions which are based on magical thinking rather than rational thought; causing individuals to make important life decisions solely on evidence provided by sources such as astrology, mythology, folk superstitions, and belief in luck, often in addition to various forms of religious faith. Yet even individuals who are well schooled in the areas of critical thinking and logical analysis will act in ways which directly defy their years of educational experience, purposefully behaving in accordance with statements based on magical principals when placed in high-risk situations (Rozin, Millman, & Nemeroff, 1986). This apparent contradiction between knowledge and subsequent behavior has prompted some researchers to reexamine the fundamental assumptions which have previously been used as a theoretical framework to guide discussions about the purpose of magical thinking in humans. Shifting from a view that magical thinking is solely a cognitive error of a mind (Piaget, 1928), toward an understanding that magical thinking seems to have pragmatic purposes (Nemeroff & Rozin, 2000; Vyse 1997). Although religion, of which magical thinking is a necessary part, has been stated as a possible means of individual and group fitness (Wilson, 2001), and magical thinking has been identified as an area which could be related to error management theory (Haselton & Nettle, 2006), an argument for magical thinking being evolutionarily adaptive has yet to be made. The argument for magical thinking as having been shaped by evolution is based on the following outline. 1) All humans naturally develop the ability to employ magical thinking. 2) Magical thinking is most often used by individuals in situations of high stress as a method of coping. 3) If we take threats to be understood as any event which is perceived to cause a drop in reproductive or survival fitness, then unmanageable threats would be threats that individuals or groups lack either the resources or knowledge to prevent. 4) Unmanageable threats are a cause of stress and anxiety. 5) Stress and anxiety have three main survival costs, a reduction in task productivity due to a reduction in working memory, a physiological weakening of body, and a loss of memory functions. 6) Logical thought, including causal reasoning, is ineffective at producing solutions to
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unmanageable threats. 7) Since unmanageable threats cannot be influenced by human behavior, the survival cost of each event is a fixed value regardless of any action or nonaction on the part of the individual. 8) When an unmanageable threat occurs, magical thinking mitigates the survival costs, caused by anxiety and stress, that logical thinking cannot. Therefore, if we take the idea that magical thinking is found in arguably all of human culture, and combine that with the idea that it seems to be a unique cognitive ability well suited for dealing with the stress of unmanageable threats, the possibility of magical thinking being evolutionarily selected must at least be considered. Overview of Magical Thinking In modern societies, magical beliefs often manifest as superstitious behaviors, religious sacraments, and personal rituals (Vyse 1997; Zusne & Jones 1989). People talk to their cars in an attempt to coax a dying engine to start; others take indirect paths to avoid walking under ladders, and still more adorn talismans and pendants for protection and guidance while performing daily activities. Such actions defy normal understanding of the causal workings of the world. It is commonly known that the vast majority of such beliefs is unsupported by logic and consistently fail under scientific scrutiny. Yet individuals hold out hope that the laws of physics will be suspended for either their benefit or the detriment of others. It is in this disregard to causal relationships, that actions based on magical thinking are allowed to continue to play a substantive role in the lives of humans, impacting both mundane and monumental decisions alike. However, this mental bias is by no means a recent development; anthropological evidence suggests that magical beliefs and practices have been around since the very beginnings of organized human culture (Campbell, 1959; Frazer, 1922; Guthrie, 1993). Magical thinking was first thought to be an aspect of early mental development by Jean Piaget (1928). In his observation of children he noticed that sometimes there existed confusion between thoughts which occurred in the mind of the child and resultant events which took place in the physical world. As an example of this confusion between self and the world, many young children will claim that they can influence events by thought alone. Piaget believed that the root of these confusions begin in what he described as the third developmental stage, occurring between 3 to 7 months, an age when infants first begin to associate a connection between mental intentions and physical effects in the world (Piaget, 1954; Subbotsky, 1993). During this stage, children develop two forms of pre-causal thinking, efficacy and phenomenalism, both of which serve as the foundation of the formation of magical beliefs (Piaget, 1954). Efficacy is the belief that internal feelings and wishes are the cause of events. Phenomenalism is the belief that close proximity in time or space between events suggests that one has caused the other. Therefore, it can be stated that magical thinking begins to occur in childhood due to a cognitive confabulation which misconstrues a correlational relationship between objects for a causal relationship. Then, as individuals cognitively develop, they begin to adjust their ontological beliefs about reality. Between the ages of 5 and 9 years children move from using predominantly correlational relationships as a means of understanding the world to a primarily causal means of interpreting the environment around them (Carey, 1985; Piaget, 1927; Subbotsky 2004). In more recent years, almost all research on the subject has suggested that magical thinking fails to disappear when an individual reaches cognitive maturity. Although there is a clear pattern of progression that normal mental development takes,
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which is a gradual trend towards greater accuracy as well as greater dependency upon logical principles (Markovits & Vachon 1989), research has given support to the notion that magical thinking remains a widely used throughout the lifespan regardless of education level or cognitive maturity (Rozin, Millman, & Nemeroff, 1986; Subotsky & Quinteros, 2002). In fact some types of magical thinking, such as ideas of magical contagion, are hardly expressed by children at all and actually dramatically increase with age (Nemeroff & Cavanaugh, 2002). Furthermore, alternative theories have emerged challenging Piagets notion that magical thinking is in and of itself a cognitive error based in a poor understanding of causality. Theories have emerged which focus on the idea of domain specific knowledge. The essence being that each domain would contain specific facts and even special causal rules associated with them, a contrast to Piagets theory that places all knowledge into one superstructure. One specific theory asserts that for young children there are three main funds of knowledge, intuitive physics, intuitive psychology, and intuitive biology (Wellman & Gelman 1992). Within the types of intuitive knowledge there are pockets of core knowledge which are learned by life experience, without the need of instruction; these areas form the foundations for further domain specific learning. Wellman and Gelman assert this theory has three main assumptions, Children honor core ontological distinctions; children use specific causal principles in reasoning about particular domains; and childrens causal beliefs cohere and form a larger interconnected framework (p. 366). However each domain may have an independent set of causal rules which is distinct to that domain alone. For example, talking is an effective causal tool in the area of psychology, vocalizing a concern to another individual is an appropriate method to get them to act. Yet talking would be a complete failure as a causal event if applied to the area of physics, we can talk to a rock all day and it is still going to remain motionless. Rosengren and Hickling (2000) have used this theory to propose that magical thinking could be a part of an independent domain of knowledge based upon a concept of magic which follows alternative rules of causality compared with foundational forms of causal logic. Interestingly, by considering the existence of specific domains of knowledge a new way to explain magical thinking is provided. As an alternative to requiring a fundamental misunderstanding of causality, as would be necessitated by Piagets theory, there is instead a misapplication of domain specific of knowledge. Employing a set of domain rules, which fails to match the domain of a situation, can result in an individual thinking magically. An example of this would be when a physical object is interpreted as having some psychological attributes, as in a printer which always seems to malfunction when time is of the essence. In this situation people tend to begin to speak to the printer, yelling threatening remarks or pleading for cooperation, an application of causal rules from psychology toward an object outside of that domain. Magical Thinking as related to Supernatural Agents and Religion Clearly not every case of active magical thinking needs to rely on a supernatural agent, as exampled by the individual who believes that her wearing of a local sports teams jersey will cause them to win. In this case the belief is solely contingent upon a connection between the individual and team, and the fan believes that she is the agent who determines the outcome of the event. However, a great deal of active magical thinking is at least partially dependant on supernatural agents, such as in the case of
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prayer. Predicated in the belief about prayer, is the understanding that a specific supernatural agent might influence an event on the prayers behalf. In this case the agent of change is outward and often supernatural (ie. A spirit, ancestor, god, saint, etc.) As reported in the evolutionary psychology literature it is thought that the human tendency for belief in supernatural agents comes from an overactive agent detector (Barrett, Richert, & Driesenga 2001; Atran 2002). Our detector is so sensitive that it responds to the slightest hint that something might be acting of its own accord, such as the office printer which always seems to act up at the worst possible time. To see things in our world as intentional agents, even when they are not, is in fact highly beneficial. We need to be able to detect all the agents we can, especially those trying not to be detected, such as a lion crouching in the brush. Noticing agents is an essential key to survival, therefore our agent detectors work on the old adage, better safe than sorry. Yet even if we are naturally predisposed to believing a random coincidence to be the makings of an agent, we still need to progress from simple detection to interaction. Magical thinking fills in an important gap in explaining how such a process would happen. Researchers have used the idea of overactive agent detectors (Boyer, 2001; Atran, 2002), or in a related vain anthropomorphism (Guthrie, 1993), in at least a partial attempt to explain the formation of religion. It is fair to say then, that magical thinking is a key element of religious belief. To believe in a supernatural agent is to employ at the very least passive magical thinking, up to active magical thinking. Scott Atran in his book, In Gods We Trust, highlights how anxiety and religion are related and states, In brief, linked feelings of guilt, anxiety, and social alienation are often conspicuous factors in religious possession, conversion, and mystical experience (p.168). Such evidence suggests that there should also be a relationship between anxiety and magical thinking. If we take an economic model of religion into consideration, such as that presented by Stark and Bainbridge (1987), requesting aid, in any form, from a supernatural agent would logically require some sort of eventual payment for its perceived services. Therefore we can assume that humans must somehow determine when we should attempt to solve a problem ourselves versus when we should appeal to a supernatural agent for help. Constantly calling upon a supernatural agent to solve every little problem would prove to be a costly method of living. We instead appeal to our anxiety as a means of determining when it would be appropriate to seek out supernatural intervention rather than attempting to solve a problem by natural and often less costly means. Magical Thinking and Anxiety The first academic recognition that magical thinking could be directly related to levels of anxiety starts with the ethnographic works of Bronislav Malinowski (1954) the famous anthropologist who documented the use of magical rituals in primitive societies. From his extensive field work and observations, he noted that the degree of uncertainty which members of traditional societies perceived about a specific future event was directly correlated to their use or disuse of a magical ritual in preparation for the occurrence of that event. His research revealed that Melanesian Islanders would refrain from using magical rituals for routine tasks such as planting crops, the construction of shelters or boats, and fishing in the placid coastal waters close to the village. In these tasks the islanders had developed a strong level of confidence based on years of tribal
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knowledge. Due to such experience the familiarity in repeating such tasks lead to a sense of certainty about the causal outcome. However, magical rituals were commonly used prior to events in which there was a high degree of uncertainty about the outcome, such as when attempting to cure illness, influence weather patterns, and sail into deep ocean waters. Support for the contention that magical thinking is related to anxiety is not limited to only anthropological evidence. The research conducted by Padgett and Jorgenson, in 1982, indicated that public interest in superstitions and occult beliefs, as measured by the amount of widely published newspaper articles related to the topic, rose sharply with the decline of the German economy from 19181940. As the economic situation became more desperate, and inflation and unemployment both sky rocketed in that country, there was an up swell in the level of public anxiety which was matched in turn by an increased interest in occult and superstitious material. Additional evidence highlighting the relationship between anxiety and superstition comes from research conducted during the height of the first Gulf War with Israeli citizens. Surveys about self reported stress levels and beliefs were given to Israeli citizens living in both high risk and low risk areas for scud missile attacks. The results indicated that people living in high risk areas possessed both higher levels of anxiety as well as higher levels of magical thinking, whereas people living in low risk areas had lower levels of stress and fewer magical beliefs (Keinan, 1994). This relationship seems to suggest again that there is a cognitive link between degree of anxiety and a willingness to accept magical thinking. Complementary research has demonstrated that high levels of anxiety, in this case mortality salience, often led to a greater likelihood of reliance on magical beliefs (Norenzayan & Hansen, 2006). This indicates that the closer we are to believing that we are going to pass away, the more likely we are to adopt new, or refine old, magical beliefs. Further evidence of a connection between magical thinking and anxiety comes from researchers studying Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Many individuals who are afflicted with OCD have, as a result, developed complex rituals and superstitions in an attempt to reduce the amount of anxiety they feel. Einstein and Menzies (2006) administered psychological tests for magical ideation and OCD symptoms which revealed a strong positive correlation between magical thinking and OCD severity. Work by Ivarsson and Valdergaug (2006) conducted with 213 patients at an anxiety clinic for treatment of either high anxiety or OCD indicated that 33% of participants relied on magical thinking as a means of coping with their disorders. Other research suggests that there exists a strong connection between obsessive-compulsive characteristics and magical thinking in non-clinical subjects (Frost, 1993; Zebb & Moore, 2003). The research which was conducted on the topic of anxiety disorders and superstitious beliefs suggests that magical thinking is primarily used by adolescents and adults as a method of coping with feeling high amounts of stress and anxiety. This research provides evidence to support the idea that there is a strong relationship between the amount of anxiety individuals experience and the likelihood of implementing magical thinking to relieve it. Anxiety and Task Performance Anxiety and stress may have debilitating effects on a persons lifestyle and happiness. Research evidence supports the assertion that participants who are experiencing stress perform significantly worse on mental tasks requiring the use of
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working memory than participants who are stress free (Darke, 1988). Schell and Grasha (2000) produced a similar outcome when, participants were placed into a simulated pharmacy situation in which they were to dispense the correct prescription and number of pills for each order. In that study, stress was applied by varying the amount of time given to complete the task. The researchers found that there was a direct relationship between anxiety and accuracy in a performance when higher levels of anxiety were created, the participants committed more errors. Other research that has focused on the forced removal of a superstitious behavior, previously used during a task that is performed in an anxiety-producing environment, decreases the performance level of individuals (Foster Weigand, & Baines, 2006). A meta-analysis of 562 studies found that there is strong evidence supporting the claim that test anxiety contributes to poor test performance (Hembree, 1988). In studies as varied as a drivers license road exam (Fairclough, Tattersall, & Houston, 2006), to specific working memory tasks such as digit span recall (Hadwin, Brogan, & Stevenson, 2005), test anxiety degrades the quality of human performance. Evidence suggests that test anxiety causes a student to need more time to complete a task compared to a stressfree student (Hadwin et al., 2005; Richards, French, Keogh, & Carter 2000). The majority of research suggests that a students accuracy fails to be impugned by stress when given enough time. Mental recall of a backwards digit span task required about 150 seconds for the control group and about 450 seconds for the high anxiety group (Hadwin et al. 2005). When test anxiety is reduced, student performance on difficult material improves, returning to the same level as low anxiety students (Hembree, 1990; Shobe, Brewin, & Carmack, 2005). Anxiety and Medical Research The physiological reaction to acute stress is well documented by psychological and medical literature. In short, once the brain interprets a situation as being stressful, there is a cascade of hormones released from different areas of the brain that travel through the blood stream and activate the adrenal glands. The activation of the adrenal glands causes the secretion of cortisol, adrenaline, and noradrenaline. These three hormones cause the typical fight-or-flight response, which is marked by a dramatic increase in heart rate, breathing, and blood pressure, while at the same time there is a spike in available energy in the form of glucose and fatty acids that are being released into the bloodstream. All non-essential systems such as digestion and the immune system are shut down, and blood flow is directed away from the extremities toward the core areas of the body, while sense of pain is reduced. All of these functions are evolutionary adoptions which prime the body to act quickly in the face of a sudden threat, while allowing the body to sustain the maximum amount of damage and continue to function. However, the physiological reaction to stress is not without a survival cost. Medical research has shown that prolonged exposure to high-stress environments causes physical illness. Specifically research in this area has provided evidence which suggests moderate to high levels of self-reported psychological stress will greatly increase our susceptibility to diseases, such as the common cold, in both controlled and natural environments (Cohen, Tyrrell & Smith 1991; DeLongis, Folkman & Lazarus, 1988). Research has provided evidence that bodily wounds and injuries heal more slowly in stressed individuals (Kiecolt-Glaser, Marucha, Malarkey, Mercado, & Glaser, 1995; Marucha, Kiecolt-Glaser & Favagehi, 1998); also wounds are less resistant to bacterial
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infection for mice experiencing stress or anxiety (Isolde-Gina, Padgett, Sheridan & Marucha, 2002). Stress and anxiety have also been associated as a key factor related to preterm birth and low birth weight of newborn children (Dole, Savitz, Hetz-Picciotto, Siega-Riz, McMahon & Buekens, 2003; Hobel, Chicz-DeMet, Dunkel-Schetter, Garite & Glynn, 2001; Hollander, 2007; Wadhwa, Culhane, Rauh & Barve, 2001; Wadhwa, Culhane, Rauh, Barve, Hogan, Sandman, 2001). In addition, stress and anxiety have been shown to be a negative factor upon ability to sleep (Akerstedt, Kecklund, & Axelsson, 2007). Although perhaps not as influential in reproductive fitness, stress has also been associated with higher risk of pulmonary and heart diseases (Kawachi, Colditz, Ascherio, Rimm, Giovannucci, Stampfer & Willett 1994; Kawachi, Sparrow, Vokonas & Weiss, 1994), as well as stroke (Everson, Lynch, Kaplan, Lakka, Sivenius & Salonen, 2001). Research has also provided evidence that over-secretion of stress hormones have a strongly negative effect on the hippocampus which is essential for both learning and memory (for a review, see Lupien, Maheu, Tu, Fiocco, & Schramek, 2007). Long periods of high stress will cause a prolonged exposure of the hippocampus to hydrocortisone, a hormone which is produced by our bodies during an acute stress response. However, this particular hormone inflicts damage on the neurons of the hippocampus, over time compromising an individuals ability to recall or learn new information (Sapolsky, 1993; Sapolsky, 1996). In addition, research that used the administration of cortisone to participants in order to mimic the bodys natural stress response showed an acute reduction in ability to recall long-term memories (de Quervain, Roozendaal, Nitsch, McGaugh & Hock, 2000). Taken together, the preceding research suggests that stress and anxiety have three strongly negative influences on people. First, stress is a detriment to task performance, it taxes working memory causing our ability to think and react quickly to decrease. Second, anxiety wears down our bodys immune system and increases our susceptibility to illnesses and disease. Third, over exposure to stress hormones appears to damage our memory by weakening the neurons of the hippocampus. Each of these injurious influences can independently exact a high survival cost for an individual, let alone once they are combined. A reduction in performance would impact essential survival activities such as food acquisition, making tools, and building shelter by increasing the amount of time necessary to complete each task. Becoming infected with a common illness or suffering an injury requires time be spent on the management of symptoms and recovery, a situation which would be complicated by the fact that stress decreases our ability to heal. With more serious diseases come even higher costs, and in some cases death. Other medical issues caused by stress such as low birth weight could easily endanger offspring, and represent a very high survival cost in the amount of energy lost during gestation. In addition, loss of memory would lead to a multitude of problems too long to list. Threats as Causes of Anxiety Anxiety is classically thought of occurring because an individual recognizes a situation as being novel and/or unpredictable, and at the same time interprets that she has little or no control over the outcome (Mason, 1968). These situations, which typically cause a stress response, are interpreted as threats which have the potential to damage the individual facing them. The idea of damage is interpreted here in terms of survival cost. Furthermore, for the purposes of this article, threats can logically be broken into two categories: manageable and unmanageable. A manageable threat is one that is
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confined within a domain of knowledge available to the individual facing the threat. In other words, the amount of knowledge we have about a specific domain is enough to allow us to logically and effectively deal with the threat which comes from that domain. If we find ourselves in the middle of a field during a lightning storm, having the domain specific knowledge that lightning tends to strike the highest point in an area is enough to allow us to deal with the threat. In this case the knowledge to find a ditch to lie in or to get as low to the ground as possible for the duration of the storm. Although alarmed by the threat, having the knowledge to deal with it effectively will reduce the anxiety caused by the occurrence of the threat. An unmanageable threat is outside of the domain of knowledge available to the individual facing the threat. In this case we lack the domain specific knowledge necessary to effectively deal with the threat which comes from that domain. If we found ourselves in the middle of a field during a lightning storm, but knew nothing about it, we would have no idea how to deal with the threat. In this situation logical thinking is of no use. Too many variables are missing, or unaccounted for, for us to be able to deduce a rational answer as to how we should properly respond to the event. In effect, without means to deal with the situation logical thought breaks down and the experienced anxiety due to the threat would continue to mount. It is fair to assume that the majority of stress we experience comes from unmanageable threats. In a more classical sense unmanageable threats might be interpreted as situations in which we lack control. There is a strong body of literature relating anxiety and stress to perceptions of control (for a review, see Mineka & Kelly, 1989). In addition to describing a threat as manageable or unmanageable we can also identify threats as being actual or predicted. An actual threat is a threat which is currently occurring, while a predicted threat is one which might occur in the future. The abilities of human foresight and imagination have been known to cause anxiety due to predicted unmanageable threats. As an example, many people laid awake at night during the Cold War with anxiety about the possibility of the eruption of a nuclear war, a situation for which no solution was known and in the end never happened. Given that for any individual a predicted unmanageable threat is forecast of danger, for which not enough knowledge is known, and that may or may not occur, any anxiety experienced due to worry would be an unnecessary survival cost. Magical Thinking as an evolved function It is natural to assume that there would be an evolutionary advantage in always using logical and rational methods of thinking to analyze a situation. However in some cases, a perfect logical rationality is sacrificed for more important advantages; as is the cause with heuristics (Kahnman, Slovic, & Tversky, 1982). Heuristics, or probabilistic rules of thumb, are biases used to make judgments and decisions about the world. They lack the accuracy of complete rationality, which cause them sometimes to be wrong; however despite their flaws they have two major evolutionary advantages. Heuristic biases are very fast to employ, and they typically work. In terms of evolution, being able to make extremely fast decisions which are correct most of the time is better than always being right but being very slow. Magical thinking is seemingly a similar case, where there is an advantage to be had in not limiting thinking to only the domain of knowledge that the unmanageable threat is in. The domain that the threat is in does not contain enough information to be
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able to provide a solution to the threat itself. Therefore in being able to cognitively jump to a different domain of knowledge that we believe might be related, suddenly allows us to fill in missing information and come up with a plan of action. More times than not, since most unmanageable threats are beyond our current level of control, the plan of action we devise is not going to alleviate the actual threat. Our behaviors and rituals carefully designed to cause the rains to come, or cure a plague, or cause a favorite team to win, have no influence on the outcome. It will however moderate the level of anxiety we feel due to those threats. Furthermore, since many predicted unmanageable threats never come to fruition, we would be wasting both time and energy on needless anxiety. Stress which not only damages us, but damages the possibility of our genes being passed on due to preterm births and low birth weights (Dole et al., 2003). Early humans would have known much less about the world that they lived in than we do today; therefore the amount of facets of the world which remained unknown would be staggering. Dealing with added anxiety, in a less certain world, would have been of greater importance, and a cognitive mechanism for abating stress would be an extremely valuable adaptation. Why we might have developed such an odd approach to difficult situations rather than just learning more about them could very well be based in the fact that there was simply too little time which could be budgeted on learning about an unknown phenomenon; all of the focus of ones energy was used on day to day survival. Concerns and anxieties about safety, food, shelter, and weather would be commonplace. Over time as specific areas of knowledge are increased by human experience, research, or luck, more unmanageable threats become manageable. What was once mysterious and unknown becomes germane. We develop disease theory and suddenly dealing with illnesses changes from warding off spirits to taking medicine. Cultures develop mass agriculture and marketing, and individuals no longer have to actively worry about the food supply. Over the course of history, we can trace the debunking of magical beliefs, by individuals who have had the luxury of time to perform investigations which our ancient ancestors had neither the time nor the means to conduct. Therefore as human society develops there is less anxiety caused by unmanageable threats, due to the advancement of our tools, resources and knowledge. We have advanced to the extent where it may now seem that a need for magical thinking might be unwarranted. However, judging the potential usefulness of such a cognitive mechanism needs to be examined over long periods of history. Prior to the current development of knowledge and technologies, a great deal of survival was based upon factors that were unknown. With the lack of knowledge about each of these factors an unmanageable threat was a problem that would arise. Knowledge reduces stress about knowable things, yet magical thinking reduces stress about the unknown or the unknowable. In contrast, attempting to analyze an unmanageable threat with logical analysis will fail to provide any meaningful response, due to a lack of knowledge about unknown variables. Whereas employing active magical thinking, specifically causal knowledge from a different domain, to an unmanageable threat allows for a solution to be manufactured by substituting information from a different domain for the missing variables of the threat. Although the use of magical thinking does not provide a solution which deals with the threat, the feeling of control reduces anxiety. Over time evolution has shaped biases which steer our behaviors toward keeping survival costs as low as
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possible, and since high levels of anxiety are clearly a detriment to survival, magical thinking could be considered an adaptive bias. However, it is important to note that magical thinking, much like some evolutionary traits, may be far less adaptive now than in the past. Considering the extraordinary level of access many individuals have to information compared to earlier in human history, magical thinking, in some circumstances, could even be judged as having become maladaptive. Discussion A fair question which might be directed at this theory is how a person could know ahead of time what is a manageable threat and what is an unmanageable threat? I would argue that individuals are unable make such a conscious distinction; rather it is our unconscious physiological response to the presentation of the problem which then predisposes our thinking process to become magical. As an anecdotal example, most people are familiar with the sudden twinge of anxiety that comes with being asked a truly difficult question and having to search for the answer. In the face of a serious problem anxiety builds the longer we fail to produce a solution. During that period of uncertainty, our mind unconsciously prepares our body for a fight or flight response. The sudden rise in anxiety load could serve as a trigger which temporarily switches the way the human mind processes information from standard methods toward magical thinking. Therefore with this theory, one should be able to predict a measurable change in the way an individual processes information as that individuals anxiety level is increased, and at some point there should be a shift from logical thought towards magical thinking. There are clear difficulties in testing this hypothesis, however with the use of advanced brain imaging technology, such as an fMRI, a researcher would be able to detect if the brain begins to fundamentally alter the way in which it processes information about a problem when under high levels of stress. If this is the case then one could attempt to determine a threshold of anxiety in which magical thinking becomes more probable than standard thought. Even though the goal of this article is to further academic thought as to how evolutionary fitness and magical thinking may be related, I would be remiss in failing to acknowledge that there are flaws in the argument as presented. First and foremost there are, to my knowledge, no empirical research studies which directly provide evidence that magical thinking reduces anxiety. Whether it is due to the difficulties of designing and testing a topic as nebulas as magical thinking, or possible problems securing IRB approval for such a study, the data is simply not there to be cited, making the argument incomplete. To combat this flaw a great deal of this article is focused on providing a strong background for magical thinking, establishing that high levels of stress negatively affects the human body, and providing related studies which indirectly point toward how magical thinking is often used. Therefore the entire argument hinges on if we can accept that magical thinking is often used as an attempt to augment stress or not. I strongly believe that there is in existence enough anecdotal evidence, indirect research studies, and life experiences of people from all over the world to support a connection between magical thinking and anxiety. We know that increased anxiety leads to increased active magical thinking (Keinan, 1994), and given that humans react negatively to being in stressed states, it is highly unlikely that people would use magical thinking to prolong their discomfort. Yet

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theory and direct evidence are two separate and distinct arenas of discussion, and we for now must remain in the former. It is clear that further research into this topic is necessary. Hopefully in the near future researchers will begin investigating the direct influence of magical thinking on anxiety. In addition, the question of whether or not magical thinking is a function which evolved independently or rather came about as a by-product of some other cognitive adaptation is open for debate. Yet regardless of what conclusions we each independently draw from the current literature we must agree that magical thinking is far more than a simple cognitive mistake of the uneducated mind, and rather exists as a much more powerful and influential cognitive mechanism. Summary If active magical thinking is viewed as operating within an evolutionary framework, even as a by-product of other cognitive functions, there is a potential gain in inclusive fitness. An individual who is able to use active magical thinking, specifically in situations of high stress and anxiety, would be able to augment the level of stress she experienced and lower the physical toll on her body. In a situation where we face an unmanageable threat it becomes impossible to use a purely logical method to abate the stress of the unknown. Too many variables are missing or unaccounted for, for us to be able to deduce a rational answer as to how we should properly respond to the event. However, with the use of active magical thinking, the gaps in knowledge can be filled in using a belief set containing imaginary correlations between what is known and the unknown. In constructing a view of the world using magical thinking, possible methods for moderating stress and anxiety become apparent through manufactured false correlations. By behaving in ways which are in accord with our magical beliefs, an individuals stress and anxiety caused by an unmanageable threat will abate. As the stress level of an individual is reduced, the chances of physical illness decrease, and so does the load that is placed on an individuals working memory. Theoretically, using active magical thinking to deal with an unmanageable threat, would lead to higher fitness than any other approach to the threat. Therefore as researchers we should be able to predict that a fundamental change in thought processes will occur in individuals who are facing an unmanageable threat, due to an increase in anxiety which triggers the use of magical thinking. Acknowledgements I would like to thank Dr. Glenn Geher for his advice and support over many years. I would also like to thank Dr. Shawn Glynn for his constructive comments on the original drafts of this manuscript. Received June 16, 2008; Revision Received January 15, 2009; Accepted March 15, 2009. References Akerstedt, T., Kecklund, G., and Axelsson, J. (2007). Impaired sleep after bedtime stress and worries. Biological Psychology, 73, 170-173.
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Zusne, L., & Jones, W. H. (1989). Anomalistic psychology: A study of magical thinking (2nd ed). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Appendix A This article focuses on active magical thinking, defined as the belief that ones thoughts, words, or actions will produce an outcome which defies the normal laws of cause and effect within a specific domain of knowledge. An example of this type of magical thinking is the belief that praying will help you overcome an illness, or that wearing a talisman will protect you from harm. In both of these cases, an action of which the individual is the genesis then brings about a magical event. Yet, it is also my belief that passive magical thinking is used as a method of modifying anxiety based upon cultural beliefs. Passive magical thinking includes anything which causes a magical event without action on the part of the individual. An example of passive magical thinking would be the belief that a local cave is haunted by spirits. In this case, no action by the believer caused the spirits to be there, their existence is external to the actions of the believer. Almost any example of passive magical thinking provided can be explained as a means of altering an individuals sense of anxiety about a situation. In many of the cases a passive magical event can be seen as an omen. An example of an omen would be seeing a black cat, an event that for some is understood to be a sign of bad luck. This is a notion which is based in the medieval European belief that witches had an anthropomorphic ability and would turn themselves into black cats to mingle among the public. Therefore, seeing a black cat was a reason to be on guard and raise your level of anxiety. The omen in this case served an alert that there could soon be conflict. It is fair to assert that the association of the black cat with bad luck was in response to the fear individuals had about the possibility of being attacked by witches. Although the meme of the black cat superstition has been passed on to the current generation, the original cultural logic for the belief has not. Almost all passive magical beliefs can be interpreted in this way; astrological signs, shooting stars, etc. However, it is important to note that omens can both raise or reduce anxiety for an individual. On the brink of war a general could easily see a shooting star as a sign of good fortune, reducing his anxiety about the battle ahead. Therefore magical thinking can be thought of as a modifier of anxiety in the face of the unknown.

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