Some notes that I have put together from class notes and class discussions about Magical thinking in anomalistic psychology. A2 Psychology.

1. ANOMALISTIC
PSYCHOLOGY
Magical Thinking

2. 1. WHAT IS DOPAMINE AND HOW IS
IT LINKED TO SUPERSTITIOUS
BEHAVIOUR?
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter in the body.
The higher the dopamine levels the increased possibility of believing
in paranormal and superstitions.
For example Brugger found differences in levels of dopamine in
brains of people who believed in paranormal.

3. MAGICAL THINKING;
Magical thinking is believing that one event happens as a result of
another without an acceptable link. It is an irrational belief that
everything is connected in some way. People can put artificial reasons
on things because we cant deal with random.

4. COGNITIVE EXPLANATION – LAW
OF SIMILARITY
The cognitive explanation suggests that magical thinking is a way of
gaining control.
It says that people believe that things that are similar or like each
other in some way are connected to each other through a causal link.
This link can not be scientifically supported. For example, if you
delete a photograph of someone from a phone, some people can feel
sorry for the person in the photograph.
When someone is uncertain about a situation, magical thinking can
increase. This is because they are trying to gain control of hat is
happening in that situation. This may reduce anxiety.
E.g. Keinan (1994) research in war zones, and pre-op patients
(Shrimali and Broota (1987))

5. BIOLOGICAL EXPLANATION – LAW
OF CONTAGION
Some people believe that once things have been in contact with each
other, there remains a connection forever. Some essence of the other
thing remains. We are programmed to avoid contamination and
poisoning. This could be a biological link which could lead to an
adaptive change in behaviour.
There is also evidence of higher levels of dopamine in those who
believe in superstitions.
Rozin and numeroff (1994) conducted some research studies that
showed these effects. For example, he found that when a plastic
clean insect was put in water people would effuse to drink it, even
though they knew that it was clean

6. PSYCHODYNAMIC EXPLANATION
The psychodynamic explanation suggests that magical thinking is
childlike thoughts. They project our real feelings into the world. An
example is when someone believes that feeling angry with someone
causes them to have an accident, with the phrase ‘serves you right’.
Pronin (2006) found that students would feel more guilty for their
target having a headache when they were more annoyed when they
put pins into the doll that represented them, than when they weren’t
as annoyed.