Department of Psychological Sciences, Kent State University, P.O. Box 5190, Kent, OH, 44242, USA.
Soc Sci Med. 2019 Sep;237:112340. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.05.045. Epub 2019 May 31.
Mind-body therapy use is an increasing social and clinical trend. Practitioners of mind-body therapies still disseminate traditional mechanistic explanations such as purification of mental or vital forces. These explanations sound similar to magical thinking, especially thought-action fusion.
The present research examined whether mind-body therapy users exhibit two related forms of magical thinking, including thought-action fusion.
Two online, cross-sectional studies with U.S. participants (Study 1 N = 645; Study 2 N = 566) assessed thought-action fusion and magical causal belief, along with mind-body therapy use and potential covariates.
The results from Study 1 revealed that thought-action fusion was uniquely associated with mind-body therapy use. This finding was replicated in Study 2, in which thought-action fusion was uniquely associated with past-year mind-body therapy use for psychological reasons and for pain/nausea. Additionally in Study 2, magical causal belief was uniquely associated with past-year use for pain/nausea and for physical disease.
Magical thinking, particularly thought-action fusion, may be associated with mind-body therapy use. Because thought-action fusion is associated with mental health vulnerabilities and magical thinking may play a role in health decision-making, these preliminary findings warrant attention.
身心疗法的应用是一种日益增长的社会和临床趋势。身心疗法的从业者仍然传播传统的机械论解释，如精神或生命力的净化。这些解释听起来与神奇思维相似，尤其是思维-行动融合。
本研究考察了身心疗法使用者是否表现出两种相关的神奇思维形式，包括思维-行动融合。
两项在美国参与者中进行的在线横断面研究（研究 1，N=645；研究 2，N=566）评估了思维-行动融合和神奇因果信念，以及身心疗法的使用和潜在的协变量。
研究 1 的结果表明，思维-行动融合与身心疗法的使用具有独特的相关性。这一发现在研究 2 中得到了复制，其中思维-行动融合与过去一年出于心理原因和疼痛/恶心而使用身心疗法具有独特的相关性。此外，在研究 2 中，神奇因果信念与过去一年因疼痛/恶心和身体疾病而使用身心疗法具有独特的相关性。
神奇思维，特别是思维-行动融合，可能与身心疗法的使用有关。由于思维-行动融合与心理健康脆弱性有关，而神奇思维可能在健康决策中发挥作用，这些初步发现值得关注。
