Understanding Magical Thinking and Magical Overthinking

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Magical thinking is the belief that internal thoughts can influence external events, often arising during unpredictable or painful times to regain a sense of control. It involves attributing cause and effect to our thoughts to make the world feel more manageable. In the modern information age, these psychological shortcuts have combined poorly, leading to the concept of magical overthinking as discussed in the book 'The Age of Magical Overthinking.'

Raise your hand if you've ever belittled a stranger online, made a decision based on astrology, or, heaven forbid, fallen for a conspiracy theory. No? Well, then, consider yourself lucky. And if your hand is raised, don't feel bad, because it turns out in our Information Age the cognitive biases that kept us alive a few millennia ago now make us susceptible to bouts of extreme irrationality. How this happened, and what we can do about it, is the subject of a brand new book by linguist Amanda Montell called "The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality."