Systematic Review of Magical Thinking Studies in Psychiatry and Psychology

A 2026 systematic review by Clare M. Eddy synthesizes evidence from 191 studies on magical thinking. The review explores predisposing factors, behavioral consequences, and neurobiological underpinnings of magical thinking across clinical and non-clinical samples. It covers a diverse array of secondary topics from gambling compulsions to childhood trauma.

Use Cases

• Analyzing cognitive and emotional correlates of magical thinking based on the review's synthesis.
• Investigating the relationship between magical thinking and social cognition as suggested by the description.
• Studying the role of magical thinking in psychiatric symptomatology across different cultural contexts.
• Exploring links between magical thinking, stress, and mood as indicated for future research.

Strengths

• Synthesizes findings from 191 identified studies, providing a broad evidence base.
• Explicitly covers both magical ideation and thought-action fusion, offering conceptual clarity.
• Encompasses studies from diverse cultural contexts and both clinical and non-clinical samples.

Limitations

• The dataset is a 47.7 KB DOCX file, indicating a limited textual summary rather than raw research data.
• Row count and column-level documentation are absent; the file's internal structure is unknown.
• The description is a review abstract; the depth of data available for re-analysis is unclear.

Provenance

Source

Clare M. Eddy via figshare.

Collection Method

Systematic review of existing literature in psychiatry and psychology.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-20 05:46:09.