Study exposes magicians’ misconceptions about why their tricks work

Research compared insights from performers and the public
Dr Gustav Kuhn
People’s perceptions of magic tricks and why they are effective are often in direct contrast to how magicians feel their performances are being received by their audiences, new research has suggested.
Through a series of experiments, experts in the psychology of magic tested a series of magicians’ long-held beliefs to see if conjurors truly understood why some of their tricks worked.
Performing magic tricks in front of live audiences has given magicians deep insights into human perception and attention, and yet this research shows that they often misunderstood why audiences responded the way they did to their performances.
The study, published in the journal Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity & the Arts, is among the first to empirically test a number of commonly held assumptions about magic tricks.
Dr Gustav Kuhn , the study’s senior author, is Associate Professor in Psychology at the ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓƵ as well as being a Member of the Magic Circle and the Science of Magic Association.

Over many centuries, magicians have learned much about the mind and found ways of turning its quirks and blindspots into moments of astonishment.

But magic isn’t just about tricks – it’s a powerful tool for understanding the mind’s hidden limitations – and we wanted to see if the insights and instincts developed by magicians were accurate. The extent to which they aren’t was somewhat unexpected and challenges a number of deeply ingrained assumptions in magic.

Gustav KuhnDr Gustav Kuhn
Associate Head of School for Marketing, Recruitment and Strategic Growth

More than 200 practising magicians were asked for their insights on performing magic, and this was then compared with the results of experiments involving over 130 members of the public.
The results showed that while magicians felt that active participation in a trick would increase participants’ sense of wonder, the participants themselves enjoyed the trick less and were actually more confused by what was happening.
The magicians also felt that naming a card, rather than physically selecting one from a deck, would enable the audience to feel freer in their choices – but participants felt the opposite.
The study also found that a trick happening in a spectator’s hand was no more impossible or engaging than when it happened elsewhere, while magicians had assumed the opposite.
The researchers behind the study say their findings provide important insights into the feelings that magic evokes, something they hope magicians can ultimately use to further improve their art.
Dr Radoslaw Wincza, the first author from the School of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Central Lancashire has added:

Our findings also shed new light on our sense of free will and agency, raising questions about the nature of decision-making and the control we believe we have over our thoughts and actions. In a striking contrast to what most of us would predict, people feel more in control of their actions, for example, physically selecting a card, rather their thinking, when they are asked to think of a random card. It shows that our sense of control differs between our actions and thoughts, but not in the way scientists would predict.

 
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