Attitudes and Abracadabra: How Do Skeptical, Superstitious, and Paranormal Beliefs Predict Enjoying Performance Magic?

Abstract

The growing psychology of magic field explores how spectators understand, appreciate, and experience this ancient performing art. The present research explored how skeptical, superstitious, and paranormal beliefs predict the enjoyment of magic. A sample of American adults ( n = 292) completed a measure of magic attitudes (the Loathing of Legerdemain Scale) along with many measures of (1) skeptical and rational beliefs (e.g., critical thinking and trust in science), and (2) superstitious and paranormal beliefs (e.g., luck, conspiracy theories, and paranormal topics like astrology, psi, witchcraft, and spiritualism). Random forests identified the most important unique predictors of magic attitudes within this large, intercorrelated predictor set. Consistent with past research and with magicians’ experiences, enjoying magic was marked by seemingly opposing clusters of beliefs—one marked by higher critical thinking, and another marked by higher superstitious and paranormal beliefs—highlighting the variety of psychological underpinnings for the enjoyment of magic.