Abstract
Classic research in developmental psychology proposed that children gradually abandon magical or supernatural beliefs and instead acquire a more scientific or natural appreciation of cause and effect. However, recent studies have shown that adults across highly diverse cultural contexts rely on magical beliefs that violate, operate outside of,or are distinct from the empirically verifiable phenomena of the physical or material world. These magical beliefs are examples of mis- or fictional-projection in projection science. The current study reviewed the literature on the development of magical thought including immanent justice reasoning, conceptions of afterlife, and beliefs of magical contagion. Overall, recent studies have suggested that these phenomena of mis- or fictional-projection are pervasive across cultures, and also across developmental stages. Several studies found a U-shaped developmental pattern in which magical thought decreased with age throughout childhood and adolescence, but then increased again among adults, implying that formal education cannot suppress magical mind only temporally. These recent studies suggested that mis- or fictional-projection is a core feature of human cognition.
