In addition, magicians often say that success with illusions depends on how well they can use gazes and faces to manipulate where audiences look, Macknik explained. The researchers tested this idea by hiding Teller's face on the video clips with a black rectangle, and found doing so apparently did not affect the illusion.
"We're showing a discovery that magicians missed because they relied on their intuition, and their intuition was wrong," Macknik said.
These findings support recent studies, including one from Macknik and his colleagues, which hinted that the facial expressions and other social cues magicians think are crucial to illusions may not actually be essential.
"A huge amount of training in magic is that social cues matter," Macknik said. "We're starting to wonder if social cues help with any magic tricks. Future research is warranted to look at the effects of social cues in illusions … we'd like to see an effect where they really matter."
These new findings shed light on how and by how much people can be misdirected, which could help magicians improve their art.
Macknik and his colleagues Hector Rieiro and Susana Martinez-Conde detailed their findings online Feb. 12 in the inaugural issue of the journal PeerJ.
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12 Comments
Add CommentI don't find anything surprising about this article. Social cues are a tool but they essentially are a subset of misdirection.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI'm also unsurprised by the commentor who immediately used this article to push their personal political agenda, as if any other political party is different. Talk about classic misdirection.
Trolls are neither magical nor very clever, it would seem.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNono, you must be mistaken, the psych ward is on the other side of the internet.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNo, the real magic is how people who are clearly brain dead give the illusion of speech.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt would indeed be interesting to study con artists, and whether politicians have learned from their tricks. So I'm with littleredtop; and commenters yammering "troll" are just part of the illusion.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSee here:
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/06/back-obama-the-cool-self-aware-irony-drenched-con-artist.html
And if links don't come through, Google:
"con man" "trick us" Obama
Sour grapes. Get over it. When Bush was elected I felt the same way but I didn't troll the internet euining discussions on an interesting topic.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSorry, no, this is about physical manipulation of objects to entertain a willing audience. Seizing the comment section and twisting the thesis of the article to justify preaching and hyperbole is trolling.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"Seven volunteers watched 10-12-second-long video clips..."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt would be nice if these words were linked to this clip having been posted somewhere, such as YouTube.
Can't resist spreading your hate at any opportunity, can you,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGot your tin hat on?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWTF are you talking about - there was no mention of politics until you brought it up. Just because he used Penn and Teller doesn't mean he's pushing their politics.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe three-cup trick is amazingly accurately picked out by a feline in a U-tube video...every time. I may be wrong about this, but I think the eyes of the cat are pretty relaxed and stable in it's gaze. So it makes me think it's a lower-brain function connected to the vision center.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhen I play the Lumosity spatial relation games, seeing globally (having had TBI's)out to the edges of the frames, I have to focus on one area too long to take in the whole frame. Guts would tell one thing and looking at the whole field is like a distraction-- as the placement of objects or digits increase in number. Peripheral focus is entailed in the process of going to the edges of the frames. So I wonder if exercises in expanding peripheral vision may expand one's accuracy in choosing the cup with the ball beneath it.