The Performance Of Sympathetic Thinking In Life And The Influence Of Positive Emotions

Since ancient times,China has had the idea of "harmony between Tian and man" and"like cause like".These thoughts are preserved in ancient magic,and become an important part of Chinese culture.There are many studies of magic from anthropologists,folklorists,historians,etc.But the studies about the phenomenon of magic is less in the field of psychology.From the view of psychology,this study throws the "cultural appearance" and superstitious shell" of magic,to explore the mode of magical thinking how it affect our daily life.First of all,the paper starts with the principle of sympathetic magic proposed by Fraser,and studies the existence form of sympathetic magical thinking in daily life from the two laws of similarity and contagion.Second,as a kind of intuition,heuristic way of thinking,the sympathetic magical thinking has many similarities with cognitive style when individual is in a positive emotional state.This study combines the sympathetic magical thinking and positive affect,to explore the effects of positive emotions to sympathetic magical thinking.In study 1 the sympathetic behavior questionnaire was developed and then used to explore if the seven similar sympathetic behaviors and seven contagious sympathetic behaviors were influenced by the sympathetic magical thinking in college students group,and whether sympathetic magical thinking has its rationality and individual differences.It was found that :(1)Sympathetic magical thinking is a universal way of thinking;(2)The individual can take a rational view of the nature of sympathetic magical thinking and realize the irrationality of sympathetic magical thinking;(3)Sympathetic magical thinking is a kind of "ecological rationality",which is the default of the individual to intuitive thinking;(4)The sympathetic magical thinking can be divided into two types: positive and negative.(5)Sympathetic magical thinking has no relation to the individual cognitive needs,and positively correlate to individual level of intuitive belief,individuals with high FI have higher sympathetic magic thinking than those with low FI;(6)There is no individual difference in gender,professional and life background.Study 2 use behavior experiment method.In the rewarding dart game,image type(red circle vs.a picture of a baby)×emotion group(positive affect group vs.neutral affect group)as the independent variable,throwing accuracy as the dependent variable,we explored if there is a difference in accuracy of the two pictures when subjects were in different emotional states.It was found that :(1)The main effect of image type on accuracy is significant,the accuracy of throwing darts at a picture of a baby was significantly lowerthan that of red circle;(2)The main effect of emotion group on accuracy is not significant;(3)The interaction between image type and emotion group on accuracy is significant;Simple effect analysis proves that,main effect of emotional group is significant when people threw darts at a picture of baby.Compared with neutral emotional group,positive affect group has lower accuracy.However,when people threw darts at red circle,there is no significant main effect of emotional group;(4)The subjects are not willing to throw darts at a picture of baby,and the throwing behavior bring negative emotional experience to the subjects.The research result shows that the sympathetic magical thinking is a kind of universal intuitive way of thinking,which shows its adaptive function of ecological rationality and is of great significance to people's life.Individuals with positive affect states tend to show higher levels of sympathetic magical thinking,and have a certain sense of self-protection and psychological adjustment for individuals.