My guess is that it's a consequence of theory of mind. Humans have an amazing capacity to imagine properties and feelings within other things. You are able to

My guess is that it's a consequence of theory of mind. Humans have an amazing capacity to imagine properties and feelings within other things. You are able to model how the predator stalking you is thinking. It may not be scientifically accurate but it can be useful. Children do this all the time and assign properties to all manner of animals and objects. And as adults we still do it. You have to build mental models because the internal complexity is just too great. This might help us to conquer an enemy by assigning evil properties. But it also helps us brew beer, trust our family, train pets, bake bread. We never fully understand any of those things but we can predict them well enough using mental models. Magical thinking is just another mental model. And for most of human evolution were were completely lacking other explanations. Magical thinking was sometimes the best explanation.