Magicians have been performing seemingly impossible feats to awe-struck audiences for millennia. With a simple flick of a hand or snap of a finger, magicians can make objects appear and disappear in the blink of an eye, make someone levitate off the ground, or even saw people in half! To perform these feats, magicians often use their knowledge of how attention works and a bit of misdirection to focus their audience’s attention where they want them to focus (Alexander et al., 2022). How does attention work, and how do magicians use misdirection to pull off these incredible feats?
What is Attention and How Does it Work?
Attention is selectively choosing to focus on specific aspects of our environment, while ignoring other stimuli (Kuhn et al., 2022). Attention is like a spotlight – we can only focus on one aspect of our environment at a time, and everything else outside of that spotlight goes unnoticed. There are two main types of attention: goal-directed attention and stimulus-driven attention. Goal-directed attention is when we choose to focus on something to accomplish some motivated goal, while stimulus-driven attention is when a stimulus in our surroundings grabs our attention (Yantis, 2002). Imagine this scenario: we’re watching a show on the TV, when we suddenly hear a loud thump from the other room. Our attention was initially focused on the TV show but instinctively shifts as we focus on the source of the loud thump. The loud thump automatically draws our attention as it may be something we need to protect ourselves from. After determining that the sound was from a family member accidentally dropping a box on the floor, we can return our attention to watching the TV show once more. We are using goal-directed attention when we are focused on watching the TV show. When we hear the unexpected loud thump, we switch to stimulus-driven attention as we try to determine the source of that sound. Magicians often use stimulus-driven attention to direct their audience’s attention to what the magician wants them to see.
How Do Magicians Use Misdirection?
Misdirection in magic is when a magician guides our attention towards the magical effects and away from what is really happening. Magicians often use their gaze, multiple hand movements, and other cues to carefully control the audience’s attention to where the magicians want them to focus (Alexander et al., 2022; Icard et al., 2024). For example, a magician could do elaborate movements with their right hand, drawing the audience’s attention to their right hand, while their left hand subtlety goes into their pocket. Multiple, quick hand movements within a short period of time can overwhelm our attentional spotlight, allowing magicians to make coins magically appear and disappear within the blink of an eye without seeming to touch the coins (Icard et al., 2024). Misdirection is a skill that must be practiced well to perform in front of an audience. Famous magicians such as Apollo Robins or Penn and Teller have mastered the technique of misdirection, allowing them to perform complex tricks such as changing tin foil balls into baseballs or taking a watch right off someone’s wrist without them noticing.
Attention is a powerful tool that can shape our perceptions of the world, so be sure to pay attention!
Citations:
Alexander, R. G., Macknik, S. L., & Martinez-Conde, S. (2022). What the Neuroscience and Psychology of Magic Reveal about Misinformation. Publications, 10(4), 33. https://doi.org/10.3390/publications10040033
Icard, B., & Fervari, R. (2024). Beyond the Spell: A Dynamic Logic Analysis of Misdirection. ArXiv.org. https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.14516
Kuhn, G., Kingori, P., & Peeters Grietens, K. (2022). Misdirection – Magic, Psychology and its Application. Science & Technology Studies, 35(2), 13–29. https://doi.org/10.23987/sts.112182
Yantis, S. (2002). Stimulus-Driven and Goal-Directed Attentional Control. In: Cantoni, V., Marinaro, M., Petrosino, A. (eds) Visual Attention Mechanisms. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-0111-4_12