Hey what’s up Thinkers! Kathy Gibbens here…
Let’s start off today’s episode by reviewing a fallacy we covered earlier this season, Bulverism. Bulverism happens when someone assumes a speaker's argument is invalid or false and then explains why the speaker came to make that mistake or to be so silly (even if the opponent's claim is actually right) by attacking the speaker or the speaker's motive.
The question to ask yourself if you think you may be facing Bulverism is this: “Are they even addressing the real argument?”
If you want to review or hear more about this fallacy, go back & check out Episode 159.
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Alright, let’s dive into today’s new fallacy, the Magical Thinking Fallacy. Magical Thinking happens when someone believes that their thoughts, their feelings, or certain rituals that they do can influence what happens in the real world, either intentionally or unintentionally. Now, this fallacy has some similarities to the Divine Fallacy that we covered back in episode 178, but it’s unique enough that it warrants its own episode. So let me give you a simple example of what Magical Thinking sounds like.
Your cousin, Landon, tells you that he’s really nervous about a big Physics test he has next week. He says, “I could really use some positive thoughts & good vibes to help me do well on it.” Ok, do you see how he’s engaging in some magical thinking here? He’s asking you to send him “positive thoughts & good vibes” in expectation that it’s going to result in a certain real-world outcome, namely that he will do well on a Physics test. But are your “good vibes” really the thing that’s going to help him do well or should he spend some more time studying? Some people who believe in and engage in magical thinking really believe in magical forces, and some just worry or hope that their internal thoughts can affect the external world.
Here’s another example of what Magical Thinking can sound like: Your friend up the street is a big Red Sox fan, and he looked really down one day so you asked him what was wrong. He says, “It’s all my fault, I had a bad dream about the Red Sox losing the other night, then they really lost. I just know that my dream jinxed the whole game!” Ok, do you see the fallacy here? Did his dream really jinx the game and make the Red Sox lose? Is there any proof of that? Or could they have just lost fair & square?
Some examples of Magical Thinking that you’ve probably heard before are Superstitions and rituals. You may have an uncle who always wears his ‘winning jersey’ to football games and is sure that his winning jersey will help his team do better. And young children often go through phases where they’ll think that something bad happened to a loved one because the child was angry at them. These examples of Magical Thinking are usually fun & innocent, as long as people don’t really buy into the idea that their thoughts or rituals are actually affecting outcomes without asking themselves if there might be other factors playing into the outcomes they’re seeing.
The problem behind the thinking behind Magical Thinking is that we have to beware of making connections with no supporting evidence. Just because we THINK something we did or thought had a certain outcome doesn’t necessarily mean it CAUSED that outcome.
Now, interestingly, Magical Thinking is also something that can have harmful effects and is something that Psychologists watch for when working with people. For instance, some people experience a lot of fear and anxiety because they believe that they can really hurt someone with the thoughts they’re thinking. And Magical Thinking taken to the extreme can mess up people’s perception of reality. We can see this in instances of schizophrenia and other delusional disorders.
Question to ask yourself: “Is that really what caused that to happen?” *repeat*
Remember: When you learn HOW to think, you will no longer fall prey to those who are trying to tell you what THEY want you to think and it all starts with asking one simple question: “Is that really true?”
