Magical Thinking

We are wired to find mean­ing in the world, and often this means includ­ing super­sti­tion and other expla­na­tions into our world view Emo­tional stress and events of per­sonal sig­nif­i­cance will push us strongly toward mag­i­cal meaning-making. Susan Gel­man explains it this way: God puts you in the path of an HIV-positive lover, but biol­ogy causes you to con­tract the virus from his semen.