Women have higher magical beliefs than men, & have stronger reliance on intuition than men; reliance on intuition helps to explain why women report higher magical beliefs than men do

Examining the roles of Intuition and Gender in Magical Beliefs. Sarah J.Ward, Laura A.King. Journal of Research in Personality, April 9 2020, 103956. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2020.103956

Highlights
• Women have higher magical beliefs than men.
• Women have stronger reliance on intuition than men.
• Reliance on intuition helps to explain why women report higher magical beliefs than men do.

Abstract: Four studies explored gender differences in magical beliefs, specifically examining whether reliance on intuition accounts for women’s higher magical beliefs (vs. men’s). In Studies 1a and 1b (N’s= 489, 1119), women’s higher magical beliefs were accounted for by measures of reliance on intuition. Study 2 (N=533) demonstrated that an intuition induction heightened men’s magical beliefs (vs. control group), but not women’s. In Study 3 (N=404), women—but not men—exhibited more suboptimal choices in a lottery task after imagining that a dream told them to do so. These studies suggest that reliance on intuition helps account for women’s higher magical beliefs.

Keywords: magical beliefsintuitiongender