Dissecting Human "Rationality": Magical Thinking

As humans, we often pride ourselves upon our capacity to think rationally and logically. However, all of us fall prey to our inherent tendency to faulty, illogical, and baseless thinking. A relatable example is after you say something pessimistic, and people tell you to not say anything negative out loud lest it actually happens.

This kind of thought process is obviously not based in any fact. There is no logical relationship between these two things i.e. saying something negative and a negative event actually occurring. Not saying something negative is not going to prevent the event from occurring. In fact, the belief that our thoughts can have any real influence over our social situations is a form of human irrationality. A student in the class, hoping that the teacher will not call his/her name to answer a question, will not have any effect upon whether or not the teacher actually calls him/her.

Apart from this, the notion that similar looking objects have similar properties is another way in which our "rationality" has failed us. This belief gives rise to practices like voodoo where people believe that if they injure a doll that physically resembles their enemy, their enemy actually gets injured in real life.

We also tend to believe that performing certain actions will avoid a negative event. Take the example of purchasing life insurance. According to a research conducted, people believe that the mere act of purchasing insurance would ensure a long life without any sudden death. What's more is that they also believed that not buying insurance would somehow be "asking for it" or inviting death.

A way to explain this lapse in rationality is our fear of death. We are uncertain of when and how we will die, and what happens after it. This causes us to rely on forces beyond this physical world for meaning in order to give us some peace. This is probably how religious and superstitious beliefs are strengthened.