“The Secret” to Success? The Psychology of Belief in Manifestation

Lucas Dixon; Matthew J. Hornsey; Nicole Hartley

doi:10.1177/01461672231181162

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“The Secret” to Success? The Psychology of Belief in Manifestation

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

“The Secret” to Success? The Psychology of Belief in Manifestation

Lucas Dixon, Matthew J. Hornsey and Nicole Hartley

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Vol.51(1), pp.49-65

2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672231181162

PMID: 37421301

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Abstract

life success

magical thinking

manifestation

mental causation

self-help

We explored the psychology of those who believe in manifestation: the ability to cosmically attract success in life through positive self-talk, visualization, and symbolic actions (e.g., acting as if something is true). In three studies (collective N = 1,023), we developed a reliable and valid measure—the Manifestation Scale—and found over one third of participants endorsed manifestation beliefs. Those who scored higher on the scale perceived themselves as more successful, had stronger aspirations for success, and believed they were more likely to achieve future success. They were also more likely to be drawn to risky investments, have experienced bankruptcy, and to believe they could achieve an unlikely level of success more quickly. We discuss the potential positives and negatives of this belief system in the context of growing public desire for success and an industry that capitalizes on these desires.

Details

Title: “The Secret” to Success? The Psychology of Belief in Manifestation
Authors: Lucas Dixon (Corresponding Author) - The University of Queensland
Matthew J. Hornsey - The University of Queensland
Nicole Hartley - The University of Queensland
Publication details: Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Vol.51(1), pp.49-65
Publisher: Sage Publications, Inc.
Date published: 2025
DOI: 10.1177/01461672231181162
ISSN: 1552-7433
PMID: 37421301
Copyright note: © 2023 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
Grants: Australian Government Research Training Program (RTP) Scholarship, RTP, Department of Education (Australia, Canberra)
Organisation Unit: School of Business and Creative Industries
Language: English
Record Identifier: 991217452102621
Output Type: Journal article

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