The law of contagion is a folk belief described axiom

Axiom

In traditional logic, an axiom or postulate is a proposition that is not proven or demonstrated but considered either to be self-evident or to define and delimit the realm of analysis. In other words, an axiom is a logical statement that is assumed to be true...

 found in magical thinking

Magical thinking

Magical thinking is causal reasoning that looks for correlation between acts or utterances and certain events. In religion, folk religion, and superstition, the correlation posited is between religious ritual, such as prayer, sacrifice, or the observance of a taboo, and an expected benefit or...

 which suggests that once two people or objects have been in contact, that a magical link persists between unless or until a formal exorcism

Exorcism

Exorcism is the religious practice of evicting demons or other spiritual entities from a person or place which they are believed to have possessed...

 or other act of banishing

Banishing

In Ceremonial magic, banishing refers to one or more rituals intended to remove non-physical influences ranging from spirits to negative influences...

 breaks the non-material bond. The first description of the law of contagion appeared in The Golden Bough

The Golden Bough

The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion is a wide-ranging, comparative study of mythology and religion, written by Scottish anthropologist Sir James George Frazer . It first was published in two volumes in 1890; the third edition, published 1906–15, comprised twelve volumes...

by James George Frazer

Conscious belief in the law of contagion

According to this idea, the law of contagion has both dangers and benefits. On the good side, the holiness of a saint

Saint

A saint is a holy person. In various religions, saints are people who are believed to have exceptional holiness.In Christian usage, "saint" refers to any believer who is "in Christ", and in whom Christ dwells, whether in heaven or in earth...

, god

God

God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....

 or other venerated figure confers benefits to relic

Relic

In religion, a relic is a part of the body of a saint or a venerated person, or else another type of ancient religious object, carefully preserved for purposes of veneration or as a tangible memorial...

s, as do temple

Temple

A temple is a structure reserved for religious or spiritual activities, such as prayer and sacrifice, or analogous rites. A templum constituted a sacred precinct as defined by a priest, or augur. It has the same root as the word "template," a plan in preparation of the building that was marked out...

s and churches, by virtue of their having religious ritual

Ritual

A ritual is a set of actions, performed mainly for their symbolic value. It may be prescribed by a religion or by the traditions of a community. The term usually excludes actions which are arbitrarily chosen by the performers....

s conducted within them.

On the bad side, this means that in according to the belief system of many cultures, a sorcerer or witch might acquire a lock of hair, nail clipping or scrap of clothing in order to facilitate a curse

Curse

A curse is any expressed wish that some form of adversity or misfortune will befall or attach to some other entity—one or more persons, a place, or an object...

. Voodoo dolls, among many other practices. A voodoo doll resembles the victim and often incorporates hair or clothing from them. Cultures that believe in sorcery, therefore often exercise care that their hair or nails do not end up in the hands of sorcerers.

Psychics and mediums

Mediumship

Mediumship is described as a form of communication with spirits. It is a practice in religious beliefs such as Spiritualism, Spiritism, Espiritismo, Candomblé, Voodoo and Umbanda.- Concept :...

 commonly utilize an object once owned by a missing or deceased subject as their "focus" for psychometry, clairvoyance

Clairvoyance

The term clairvoyance is used to refer to the ability to gain information about an object, person, location or physical event through means other than the known human senses, a form of extra-sensory perception...

 or during séance

Séance

A séance is an attempt to communicate with spirits. The word "séance" comes from the French word for "seat," "session" or "sitting," from the Old French "seoir," "to sit." In French, the word's meaning is quite general: one may, for example, speak of "une séance de cinéma"...

s.

Unconscious belief in the law of contagion

Even among supposedly sophisticated people psychological experiments have shown a reluctance on the part of the public to, say, try on a sweater

Sweater

A sweater, jumper, pullover, sweatshirt, jersey or guernsey is a garment intended to cover the torso and arms. It is often worn over a shirt, blouse, T-shirt, or other top, but may also be worn alone as a top...

 worn by a serial murderer, as if subjects assume that their evil somehow lingers in the article of clothing.