Editing Magical thinking (section)

{{Short description|Belief in the connection of unrelated events}}
{{Other uses}}

'''Magical thinking''', or '''superstitious thinking''',<ref name="LF2020"/> is the belief that unrelated events are causally connected despite the absence of any plausible causal link between them, particularly as a result of [[supernatural]] effects.<ref name="LF2020">{{Cite web| title = Magical Thinking| last=Bennett|first=Bo|work = Logically Fallacious| access-date = 20 May 2020| url = https://www.logicallyfallacious.com/logicalfallacies/Magical-Thinking}}</ref><ref name="Carroll2014">{{Cite web| title = Magical thinking| work = The Skeptic's Dictionary| author = Carroll RT| date = 12 Sep 2014| access-date = 20 May 2020| url = http://skepdic.com/magicalthinking.html}}</ref><ref name="Sternberg2007"/> Examples include the idea that personal thoughts can influence the external world without acting on them, or that objects must be causally connected if they resemble each other or have come into contact with each other in the past.<ref name="LF2020"/><ref name="Carroll2014"/><ref name="Vamos2010">{{cite journal|last1=Vamos|first1=Marina|title=Organ transplantation and magical thinking|journal=Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry|volume=44|issue=10|year=2010|pages=883–887|issn=0004-8674|doi=10.3109/00048674.2010.498786|pmid=20932201|s2cid=25440192}}</ref> Magical thinking is a type of [[Logical fallacy|fallacious]] thinking and is a common source of invalid [[causal inference]]s.<ref name="Sternberg2007">{{cite book|author1=Robert J. Sternberg|author2=Henry L. Roediger III|author3=Diane F. Halpern|title=Critical Thinking in Psychology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3mA9NPAgWR0C|year=2007|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-60834-3}}</ref><ref name="Carhart-Harris2013">{{cite journal|last1=Carhart-Harris|first1=R.|author-link=Robin Carhart-Harris|title=Psychedelic drugs, magical thinking and psychosis|journal=Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry|volume=84|issue=9|year=2013|pages=e1|issn=0022-3050|doi=10.1136/jnnp-2013-306103.17|doi-access=free}}</ref> Unlike the [[Correlation does not imply causation|confusion of correlation with causation]], magical thinking does not require the events to be correlated.<ref name="Sternberg2007"/>

The precise definition of magical thinking may vary subtly when used by different theorists or among different fields of study. In [[psychology]], magical thinking is the belief that one's thoughts by themselves can bring about effects in the world or that thinking something corresponds with doing it.<ref>{{cite book |first= Andrew M. |last= Colman |title= A Dictionary of Psychology |edition= 3rd |publisher= Oxford University Press |year= 2012}}</ref> These beliefs can cause a person to experience an irrational fear of performing certain acts or having certain thoughts because of an assumed [[correlation]] between doing so and threatening calamities.<ref name="LF2020"/> In [[psychiatry]], magical thinking defines false [[belief]]s about the capability of thoughts, actions or words to cause or prevent undesirable [[Event (philosophy)|events]].<ref name="DSM-5">{{cite book |author=American Psychiatric Association |author-link1=American Psychiatric Association |title=Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) |year=2013 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/diagnosticstatis0005unse/page/655 655, 824] |location=Arlington, VA |publisher=American Psychiatric Publishing |isbn=978-0-89042-554-1 |doi=10.1176/appi.books.9780890425596 |url=https://archive.org/details/diagnosticstatis0005unse/page/655 }}</ref> It is a commonly observed symptom in [[thought disorder]], [[schizotypal personality disorder]] and [[obsessive-compulsive disorder]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Kaplan and Sadock's Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry |first1=B. J. |last1=Sadock |first2=V. A. |last2=Sadock |first3=P. |last3=Ruiz |edition=10th |publisher=Wolters Kluwer |date=2017 |isbn=978-1-4511-0047-1}}</ref><ref name="Fonseca-Pedrero et al. (2018)">{{cite journal |vauthors=Fonseca-Pedrero E, Ortuno J, Debbané M, Chan E, Cicero D, Zhang L, Brenner C, Barkus E, Linscott E, Kwapil T, Barrantes-Vidal N, Cohen A, Raine A, Compton M, Tone E, Suhr J, Inchausti F, Bobes J, Fumero A, Giakoumaki S, Tsaousis I, Preti A, Chmielewski M, Laloyaux J, Mechri A, Lahmar M, Wuthrich V, Laroi F, Badcock J, Jablensky A, Isvoranu A, Epskamp S, Fried E|date=2018 |title=The network structure of schizotypal personality traits |journal=Schizophrenia Bulletin |volume=44 |issue=2 |pages=468&ndash;479 |doi=10.1093/schbul/sby044|pmid=29684178 |pmc=6188518 }}</ref><ref name="Barkataki (2019)">{{cite thesis |type=PhD |vauthors=Barkataki B |date=2019 |title=Explaining obsessive-compulsive symptoms? A transcultural exploration of magical thinking and OCD in India and Australia |publisher=Curtin university}}</ref>