The magical mind

Old tricks: Bosch’s depiction of the magician’s trade

A new study, published in July this year, makes a powerful plea for a science of magic, a formal unravelling and categorisation of conjurors' tricks to expose their psychological workings. The authors, including the Durham University psychologist and practising magician Dr Gustav Kuhn, argue that this academic approach will open new research avenues, particularly where the psychology of a trick is less understood. It could also offer new insights for magicians, suggesting new kinds of magic effects "based on perceptual mechanisms different from those normally drawn upon".

The researchers, from Durham University and the University of British Columbia, say the insights from their work have potential applications in activities that aim to direct people's attention, such as the rapidly developing field of human computer interfaces; the ability of conjurors to misdirect their audience could, they suggest, form the basis of 'coercive graphics' that would lead a user to see, or not see, particular aspects of a display.

Magic, from this perspective, is far more than a frivolous entertainment: it is an expression of the mind’s own 'conjuring' faculties. As the authors note:

Much of vision is essentially a form of intelligent hallucination. To perceive depth, for example, the visual system must recover the third dimension from the 2D image available on the retina. However, because multiple solutions are generally possible for a given image, the result must be obtained by applying assumptions of some kind. This approach, however, can sometimes lead to errors, which take the form of illusions.

The study, published online in the journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences, outlines the key techniques of the magic trade – categorised as ‘misdirection, illusion and forcing’ – which have only recently been formally identified by scientists and taken seriously as a valid research area. According to the authors, although a few attempts have been made in the past to draw links between magic and human cognition, this knowledge has been largely ignored by modern psychology.

Kuhn explains: "Magicians are in some ways miles ahead of scientists. For example, imagine a ball tossed into the air that suddenly disappears, or someone successfully predicting what you will do next. These tricks may seem like they defy the laws of physics and logic, but they are actually created through a combination of skill and a deep knowledge of human psychology.

"By drawing upon the practical knowledge and experience of magicians, scientists may obtain new insights into various areas of human perception and cognition that we are still struggling to understand."

Kuhn and his team have developed various magic tricks and experiments to explore the psychological mechanisms that are a magician's stock in trade. In one classic misdirection trick (follow the link to watch a video demonstration), the magician distracts the audience by putting a cigarette in his mouth the wrong way round, while his unobserved hand drops the cigarette lighter into his lap. As Kuhn notes, the disappearance is achieved in plain view without sleight of hand – it's simply that the viewer’s attention is directed elsewhere. Another experiment, a simple vanishing ball illusion, points up the power of the magician’s gaze to induce a false picture in the audience’s mind.

Co-author Professor Ronald Rensink, of the University of British Columbia, commented: "The effects discovered by scientists over the past few years are clearly related to the effects that magicians can produce. We are now at the point where we can begin to create a 'science of magic' that will let us understand how magic effects work, and suggest how we might further develop them and apply them in everyday life."

The authors add a final note of caution: "Magic is one of the oldest art forms, and relies on people's ignorance of its methods. Although these methods can prove valuable to the scientist, care should be taken in using these techniques as a way of investigating the mind without destroying the necessary mysteries and secrets that give us so much joy."

'Towards A Science of Magic', Kuhn, Amlani and Rensink, Trends in Cognitive Sciences, published online July 2008