Systematic Review of Magical Thinking Studies in Psychiatry and Psychology

A systematic review synthesizing 191 studies on magical thinking, its predisposing factors, and behavioral consequences. The review was authored by Clare M. Eddy and published on figshare in May 2026. It encompasses research on magical ideation and thought-action fusion across clinical and non-clinical samples.

Use Cases

• Literature review on magical thinking correlates based on the synthesis of 191 studies.
• Meta-analysis of predisposing factors for magical ideation based on the reviewed evidence.
• Investigating the role of magical thinking in social customs and religious traditions based on the societal-level analysis mentioned.
• Exploring neurobiological underpinnings of psychopathology based on the review's stated aims.

Strengths

• Systematic methodology covering 191 identified studies.
• Explicitly licensed under CC-BY-4.0 for open reuse.
• Focus on a diverse array of secondary topics from gambling to childhood trauma.

Limitations

• Dataset is a 45.9 KB DOCX file, indicating a limited textual summary rather than raw research data.
• Row count and column-level documentation are absent; data structure is unknown.
• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.

Provenance

Source

Clare M. Eddy

Collection Method

Systematic review of existing literature.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-20 05:46:10; freshness should be verified.