Magical thinking is a common and mostly harmless – but it can signal an anxiety disorder

Leading up to the election, many people may have thought they would jinx their preferred candidate if they stated that they believed he or she would win.

This belief that one's thoughts or hopes can influence external outcomes is known as magical thinking. It's closely linked to the concepts of karma and superstition, and its exists on a continuum, said Daniel Chazin, director of Center for Anxiety, OCD, and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in Philadelphia.

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Magical thinking can be as benign as knocking on wood to avoid bad luck or crossing fingers for good luck. It can arise as part of an anxiety disorder, such as a woman chronically worrying that just having an angry thought will actually cause her to do something violent.

Renowned Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget identified magical thinking as part of childhood development, such as when a young boy believes that wishing for a puppy will bring one to his doorstep. Another example of childhood magical thinking is the superstition that stepping on a crack will break a mother's back. As children age, logic increasingly takes hold and magical thinking dissipates, Piaget found.

That doesn't mean, however, that adults don't practice magical thinking. Lots of people pick up pennies for good luck – but not if they're face down – or think, against their better judgment, that the number 13 invites unhappy outcomes.

A 2002 study determined that stress increases magical thinking, perhaps because engaging in magical rituals or superstitions helps people regain a sense of control. Similarly, a study from 2007 found that students reported more frequent use of magical rituals or charms as the stakes rose during exams. Research from 1990 revealed that people were reluctant to drink a beverage labeled as containing cyanide, even though they knew the label was false. The same study found that people had some reluctance to eat a food if it was explicitly labeled as "not sodium cyanide" or "not poison."

Athletes and sports fans also practice magical thinking. In 2019, Phillies infielder Brad Miller bought a lucky bamboo plant to end a losing streak and then bought an even bigger one to bring the team more wins. They still missed the playoffs, however, for the eighth year in a row.

When the Kansas City Royals were struggling during the 2016 season, a praying mantis that rested on outfielder Billy Burns' hat became the cherished "Rally Mantis" that the team purported brought them a stream of wins – until the mantis died.

Though magical thinking can help provide a sense of optimism or control, it sometimes can be dangerous. President-elect Donald Trump repeated during the pandemic that COVID-19 would just "go away" – as if it would disappear because he wished it or decreed it to be so – spreading misinformation and endangering public health. CNN quoted Trump as saying in late February 2020 about COVID: "It's going to disappear one day. It's like a miracle."

The "more that we're letting thinking errors or thinking patterns guide our entire lives, the more we become absorbed in them," said Chazin, who is also a clinical assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine.

People with severe anxiety disorders or obsessive compulsive disorders may mix up their thoughts with intentions in a way that becomes torturous and self-destructive. For instance, magical thinking can be damaging if a person worries about harming their child and "they confuse that worry for an indication that they really want it," Chazin said.

Or someone might mix up their thoughts with actions, confusing worries that "'I might harm my kid,' for 'I'm going to harm my kid,'" and avoid their child or give him up for adoption, Chazin said.

"When you're thinking, whether magical or not, is really making your life crappy ... making you suffer ... that's when you should seek help," Chazin said.

Chazin and other clinicians at his workplace use a variety of cognitive behavioral therapy techniques to help patients diffuse intrusive, chronic magical thinking patterns. One method, called cognitive restructuring , guides people to examine their thoughts, evaluate their validity and create accurate thoughts to replace inaccurate ones.

Exposure and response prevention therapy helps people confront the thoughts and situations that make them anxious or that trigger their obsessions and then make a choice not to engage in compulsive behavior, according to the International OCD Foundation based in Boston.

Exposure therapy can help people diffuse the destructive, magical idea that thinking about hurting a child will cause them to do it. The goal is that by being "around your baby ... you realize through facing that fear that you don't have any intention of harming that loving being, that you're going to be fine," Chazin said.