Magical Thinking

April 16, 2012

Interview with Matthew Hutson, author of the book The 7 Laws of Magical Thinking: How Irrational Beliefs Keep Us Happy, Healthy, and Sane

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Mike Carruthers:
Knocking on wood, having lucky charms, believing in karma these are versions of what’s called magical thinking.

Matthew Hutson:
And every individual person has a tendency to believe in these sorts of things I think we are magical thinkers by default.
 

Matthew Hutson, author of the book The 7 Laws of Magical Thinking...

Even if you call yourself a skeptic, you’ll still find yourself doing little lucky rituals or feeling like something happened for a reason – it seems that it is human nature.

Some magical thinking happens subconsciously.

And there is research showing that people thought that they were using a lucky golf ball suck 35% more golf puts than people who thought that they were using a normal golf ball.The researcher proposed that it increases self-efficacy so if you think that you’re using a lucky golf ball then you expect to perform well and then you actually do perform better.

Another example of magical thinking is the value we put on items that have historical significance as if they’re magic an example is John Lennon’s piano.

If John Lennon’s piano had no special history, if it were not John Lennon’s piano it would just be a regular old piano with dings in it and no one would care. But the fact that it had this history of being the piano that the song Imagine was written on it sold for a couple million dollars and it gives people a lot of inspiration when they’re around it and they get to touch it.

To hear the complete unedited interview, click here