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Why Magical Thinking Works

By Peter Lloyd

When you think your thoughts can make things happen, you’re engaging in magical thinking. I know this could get me into trouble with skeptics, but I’m willing to (knock on wood) take a chance and recommend magical thinking on behalf of creativity.

Matthew Hutson, writing in Psychology Today, describes how a number of people claim they feel a powerful sensation in the presence of the piano on which John Lennon wrote his famous song “Imagine.”
Maybe you’re not a Beatles fan. Maybe you even hate peace and love. But you are wired to find meaning in the world, a predisposition that leaves you with less control over your beliefs than you may think. Even if you’re a hard-core atheist who walks under ladders and pronounces “new age” like “sewage,” you believe in magic.
Even though I thought I was terribly original by pronouncing “new age” like “sewage,” I have to confess to my share of magical thinking. I wish people good luck. I try not to tempt fate or jinx an upcoming event with my predictions. I get angry with inanimate objects that don’t cooperate—like nails that bend when I hammer them. photo

But I don’t fall for the idea that the full moon inspires criminals or in the performance streaks of athletes. I’ll walk under a ladder and crisscross paths with a parade of black cats without the slightest trepidation.

Yet I talk to my car, coax it and compliment it. I’ve named my cars and guitars. I have feelings for certain books, tools, and clothes. I so hate throwing away old shoes, out of magical respect for the service they’ve provided me, that I wrote the song, Be Good to Your Shoes, in their honor.

The Science Behind Magic
Hutson explains that because our brains can’t help but look for patterns, we find them. “We look for patterns because we hate surprises and because we love being in control.” And because we can’t help but find patterns, we use them to concoct and execute self-fulfilling prophecies. We create superstitions and good-luck charms, because our senses flee from the fact of coincidence.

In Scientific American, Piercarlo Valdesol cites several experiments that help explain how irrational magical thinking works. In one, subjects performed better putting golf balls when they were told the ball they were given was a lucky ball.

After citing two more experiments with similar results involving charmed objects, Valdesol offers this explanation.
Specifically, was it making participants set loftier goals for themselves? Was it increasing their persistence on the task? Turns out, it’s both. Participants in the charm-present conditions reported setting higher goals on an anagram task and demonstrated increased perseverance on the task (as measured by the amount of time they spent trying to solve it before asking for help).
So magical thinking works like a placebo. As long as you believe, you may enhance your performance. The crux is in the word you, of course. It’s you doing the magic, but only as long as you believe it’s not you.

Use Magic Creatively
Applied to your creative performance, thinking you are creative, it has been shown, makes you more creative. Confidence in your ability to solve a problem, makes you more likely to solve it creatively.

Since we are so heavily inclined to find magic in patterns, make it work for you. If you have a creative pencil, sharpen it. An innovation chair, sit on it. An invention bench, belly up to it. Whatever it is, use it. And don’t think too hard about it. Make it fun, the number-one creativity elixir.

Peter Lloyd is co-creator with Stephen Grossman of Animal Crackers, the breakthrough problem-solving tool designed to crack your toughest problems.

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