Magical Help Doesn't Do The Trick

Main Category: Psychology / Psychiatry
Article Date: 03 May 2009 - 0:00 PDT

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Magical suggestion can affect people's subjective experiences. This is the finding of a study published online yesterday, 2nd May 2009, in the British Journal of Psychology.

Eugene Subbotsky from Lancaster University who carried out the research said: "The belief in magic exists across many cultures, including British culture, so it's interesting to know to what extent these beliefs actually affect individual's subjective experiences."

The researchers attempted to discover how people were affected when they were told they'd been given magical help. Seventy three participants aged between 18 and 35 took part in the study. All were first shown a magic trick and were then asked to complete a questionnaire on their current level of life satisfaction. A third of the group were offered magical help in their lives and the rest were not offered help. Two weeks later, all participants were asked to report their levels of life satisfaction again.

Participants' reports of their life satisfaction were significantly affected by the offer of magical help. People who were offered magical help and accepted it reported significantly lower life satisfaction than those offered no help. In contrast, people who were offered but rejected magical help reported a significant increase in life satisfaction.

The participants were also questioned on their level of magical beliefs, and most people did not believe that magical spells would have an effect on their lives.

"We can see from our results that people who tell us they don't believe in magic can still be affected by magical suggestion. It's likely that this effect was down to 'protective behaviour'. To protect themselves from magic, which most participants consider an unknown and potentially dangerous force, the participants claimed lower levels of life satisfaction to demonstrate to us that our magical suggestion did not work - to prove us wrong if you like," Eugene Subbotsky continued.

"In contrast, those who rejected magical help felt a relief from escaping the danger of interfering with magic forces, and this increased their life satisfaction."

In a further experiment, participants were offered magical help to see their desired dreams, but instead of seeing their desired dreams, participants saw nightmares. "This shows that protection from magical intervention works subconsciously," said Mr Subbotsky. "By releasing undesirable dreams instead of desirable ones, participants' subconscious mind breaks the agreement that they consciously made with the magician, thus making them free from obligations toward magic".

In a linked study, the researchers also found no participants would allow a bad spell to be cast over them.

"The results of our studies suggest that the belief in magic provokes a variety of emotional responses, and so can affect people's lives."

Source
The British Psychological Society

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