A motley of attitudes: Rethinking belief in magical practice

Why do people turn to magic for healing, divination or other high-stakes decisions, even when its practical effects are uncertain? A new interdisciplinary paper by NOMIS researcher Ryan McKay and colleagues argues that the answer is more complex than simply believing or not believing. People may approach magical practices with a shifting mix of conviction, doubt, imagination, symbolism and expressive commitment. Their findings were published in Evolution and Human Behavior.

Drawing on ethnography, cognitive science, political psychology and philosophy, the authors challenge two long-standing explanations. One treats magic mainly as sincere belief in an effective tool. The other sees it chiefly as make-believe or symbolic action. Their “mixed-attitude” account argues that both perspectives capture part of the picture: Different people in the same community may relate to the same practice in different ways, and a single person’s stance may vary across practices or change over time. People may also misdescribe their own attitude as a firm belief.

The argument may have implications beyond magic. The authors suggest that reports of belief about magic, conspiracy theories and magical practices in Western, educated, industrialized, rich and democratic (WEIRD) societies should not automatically be taken as evidence of one uniform, settled mental attitude. In everyday life, saying something is true may sometimes express identity, hope or willingness to act as well as literal conviction.

Read the Evolution and Human Behavior publication: A motley of attitudes: belief, insincerity, and non-doxastic commitment in magical practice