

For example, people may worry they could accidentally harm themselves or others with their thoughts or emotions. Stress and anxiety: Some magical thinking is fear-based and may cause anxiety.However, some types of magical thinking may cause harmful effects, such as: Sharing magical beliefs with others may also give a person a sense of community, such as when sports team superstitions are part of team bonding. For example, superstitions might help a person feel less anxiety while awaiting test results. Magical thinking may benefit a person by giving them a sense of control in a situation in which they have little control.

Whether magical thinking helps or harms a person very much depends on the type of thoughts they have and the emotions or behaviors that come with them. Delusions: Some delusions involve magical thinking, such as the belief that a person can control others with their thoughts, or that they have godlike powers.For example, a child might believe that something bad happened to a family member because the child was angry at them. Childhood thoughts: Young children are still learning about how the world works, so they may assume that their internal and external worlds are more closely connected than they are.

However, they may consider extreme or atypical religious beliefs to be the result of magical thinking. For example, some Christians believe that praying can affect the physical world, but because this is a typical part of a religion with a widely accepted belief system, psychologists may not consider it to be harmful.
