5 ms·

I find this to be a very strange thing to study. Wouldn't the time be better spent on something else? Or were they just looking for something to do. Or was this

• eru 3y ago
  Publish or perish? Though for this specific study: understanding mental health might help us find ways to help people with mental health. Or at least might help us do less of the harmful kind of 'help' we might currently practice. It's hard to do controlled experiments on people, so we often resort to observational data and, if we are lucky, natural experiments. > The study suggests that mental health profiles for magicians are akin to those of mathematicians and scientists. Crasson said precision was an important part of magic. Which reminds me of Raymond Smullyan: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Smullyan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Smullyan
• ReactiveJelly 3y ago
  If it's causation one way, maybe teaching people magic could be a low-risk treatment for mental disorders. If it's causation the other way, we might wonder why more ordered people choose some careers or hobbies over others.
• nmstoker 3y ago
  Maybe it would look that way if you lack the context that supports it being a sensible progression from some nearby finding that raised questions along these lines.
• krisoft 3y ago
  > Wouldn't the time be better spent on something else? Studying what makes people feel better vs what makes them feel worse is in some sense the only important thing to study.