What is Magic?

Codesign study

From dragons to witches to giant turtles, versions of magic exist in folklore across the world. In some stories, magic is wicked, in others it's miraculous, and still in others it falls somewhere in between. Since personality can have a significant influence on one's views on life, I collaborated with a team of undergraduate researchers to learn if this phenomenon extends to people's views on magic.

We surveyed 52 people participate in a preliminary online survey. Of the 52 participants, we had 13 people participate in additional in-person workshops.

Research questions: Do personality traits have any relationship to the way individuals view magic?

Survey

workshop

The workshop ran four sessions, with each workshop session split into three parts. The activities and time allotted for each part was as follows.

Part 1, 20 min (10 min to complete the activity, 10 min for discussion):

Using the clip art and blue markers, show what an average day looks like for you.

Part 2, 20 min (10 min to complete the activity, 10 min for discussion):

Using the provided toolkit (3D abstract objects) show us how you visualize magic.

Part 3, 20 min (10 min to complete the activity, 10 min for discussion):

Using another person’s timeline and a pink marker, make their average day “magical.”

Toolkits and responses are shown below.

There were a wide range of responses. Some participants responses were rooting in highly fantastical things like storybooks (Harry Potter, for example) while other individuals responses were rooted in things they encountered in their own day-to-day life.

analysis

One of the most interesting things we saw is that participants in different workshops sometimes produced very similar depictions of "magic" (as shown in slide 3).

Conclusions

An individual’s personality doesn’t play a significant role in their understanding and perception of magic. Instead, their perceptions are more dependent on their environment.

Additionally, we discovered that...

Magic can be used as a tool to aid in storytelling.
Magic can be a tool to temporarily solve stressful issues.
No significant differences between sub-groups or personalities.
The group that knew each other the least leaned into the fantastical elements of magic the most.