Stuart Vyse is a psychologist and author of Believing in Magic: The Psychology of Superstition, which won the William James Book Award of the American Psychological Association. He is a fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry.
Every now and again it’s worth looking back at old unsupported ideas that we thought were dead and buried because, like zombies, they sometimes climb out of their graves and stagger into the future. So, when I came across a recent mention of Wolfgang Mozart in a psychological study, I was not entirely surprised by what I dug up.