"Now You See Me": Psychology tells you why you are deceived

Is it magic or a trick?

Brain-burning crime films with dramatic reversals have always had a broad market in the film and television industry, but due to the difficulty in completing the script, there have been few films of this type. One of the most successful crime films in recent years is the "Now You See Me" series. The magicians' superb skills and rhetoric have made the audience doubt reality after watching the movie, so today we will analyze from a psychological perspective why we are always deceived by magicians.

Now You See Me is a crime film released in 2013. It tells the story of a magic group called the "Four Horsemen" who performed an unimaginable magic show in broad daylight and in full view of the public - they stole 3.5 million euros from a French bank vault in Las Vegas! Detectives Rod and Elma tried to solve the mystery, but in fact they fell into the trap set by the magician step by step.

Now You See Me poster image source: Image Network

Now You See Me 2 poster image source: NetEase

First of all, we need to know the essence of magic. The famous magician Teller once said: "Every magic performance is a psychological experiment." A successful magician is also a master of psychology to a certain extent. We can know this fact from the characteristics of the "Four Horsemen": the leader Daniel is a master of sleight of hand, the hermit Merritt is a master of hypnosis, Wilder is a thief and Henry is a master of escape. These four techniques all cleverly use people's psychology to a large extent.

Image source: Sohu.com

The inevitable sleight of hand

First, let's talk about Daniel's sleight of hand. Daniel has a line like this: "Come closer. The more you think you see, the easier it is for your eyes to deceive you. When you see, you are actually filtering and understanding, looking for meaning. What I do is use the precious gift you gave me: your attention, against you." This sentence has well explained the essence of sleight of hand, which is to take advantage of the phenomenon that "when people are highly focused, they often ignore some obvious things."

In a card trick, Daniel asked a lady to remember a card while he was quickly passing the cards. After passing the cards twice, Daniel accurately said that the card the lady remembered was the 7 of Diamonds. It seems amazing at first glance, isn't it? In fact, this is because Daniel deliberately left a little more time when passing the 7 of Diamonds during the rapid passing process, perhaps only 0.01 seconds, but this fleeting time was enough for the lady to imprint this card in her mind and ignore the information of other cards.

All our senses can receive about 11 million pieces of information per second, and it is consciousness that allows us to accurately locate the information we need. The principle of sleight of hand is simply "selective attention", which is called "induction" in the field of magic. When people focus their attention on the magician and his props, they choose to accept the stimulation imposed by the magician among the numerous information in the surrounding environment, which makes it easier for the content of the stimulation to enter the audience's brain. Including the applauded rain control magic in the second part, it is also completed by focusing the audience's attention on themselves without noticing the existence of the props.

Image source: Sohu.com

Hypnosis has always been a myth

Then there is Merritt's hypnosis. Hypnosis has been overly mythical in some film and television works, while Merritt's hypnosis in "Now You See Me" seems relatively reasonable. The essence of hypnosis is to make people enter a trance state, making it easier to accept the suggestions imposed by the hypnotist. But even in a hypnotic state, people are still conscious. It is impossible to use hypnosis to make the subject do something that is completely inconsistent with his subjective will. (Portal "Being hypnotized = absolute obedience? You are still too naive!" http://ask.kedo.gov.cn/c/2020-07-06/1039514.shtml)

When hypnotized, the subjects have the following seven psychological characteristics: reduced proactive response, narrowing of attention level, restoration of old memories, perceptual distortion and hallucinations, increased receptivity to suggestion, role-playing during hypnosis, and experiential amnesia during hypnosis.

Why was the woman unable to even walk and talk during Merritt's hypnosis? Because in theory, hypnosis can cause people to lose their memory to a certain extent, including temporarily forgetting how to ride a bicycle, swim, or even walk and talk. Merritt's use of rhetoric to induce the woman's husband to reveal the person he cheated with and then blackmail him was also a form of hypnotic induction, or "targeted guesswork" in his words. Merritt used rhetoric to make the man enter a state that was easily induced by him. Although the man was not hypnotized at this time, he had already entered the hypnotist's rhythm psychologically and was easily influenced by the hypnotist's rhythm and could easily accept suggestions, so he was easily tricked into talking.

Image source: Sohu.com

You may not lose money, but the thief will always make a lot of money

Wilder's stealing method is somewhat different from the above two. The most important thing about stealing is the personal method, and psychology is only an auxiliary function. In the film, Wilder performed a magic trick of bending a spoon with his mind on the boat, and claimed that anyone who could see through his trick could get $100. To be honest, Wilder's magic tricks are not particularly superb, and his magic tricks were quickly seen through. Wilder's boast was instantly slapped in the face, and it seemed that he was stealing a chicken but lost the rice. But in fact, when everyone's attention was attracted by the seer, he had already taken his wallet and watch the moment he came into contact with the seer. People have to wonder if he deliberately chose a simple magic trick to be seen through so that he could get the opportunity to do it.

In addition, Wilder is also good at using blind spots in vision. His method of creating a fake death by creating a car accident has attracted the attention and sympathy of the world, laying the foundation for the success of the next magic show. This is somewhat similar to the sleight of hand, which uses selective attention and inattentional blindness. At the same time, magicians are also good at mobilizing the emotions of the audience and making the audience their props, which is why the audience is always fooled by the same trick.

The author does not want to discuss with you how to become a master thief, but hopes to analyze the theft techniques so that you can avoid being stolen in life. There was a street magician who performed interactive performances with passers-by, constantly attracting the attention of passers-by and stealing their wallets, mobile phones, scarves and other items, but the passers-by did not react! This shows that when people are highly focused, it is difficult for them to notice other things happening in the surrounding environment. For example, someone walks by your left side and taps your right shoulder, and takes the phone from your hand the moment you turn your head. It takes you a few seconds to react that the phone is gone. This is also a common method used by thieves in crowded places such as bus stations and train stations, so everyone needs to pay attention.

Image source: Drama Bar

It is a magician's job to whet the audience's appetite

Finally, there is Henley's escape. To be honest, this is beyond the author's understanding. It is more of a magic trick than a psychological application. But here is a spoiler. In the first part, the agent Dylan who has been chasing the four horsemen was the one who had been guiding them. Almost all of their actions were carried out according to Dylan's arrangements and instructions. And the agent Elma who has always wanted to find the truth has never doubted him. Even Bradley, who makes a living by revealing magic, has been kept in the dark by Dylan. Dylan made full use of the "inattentional blindness" in human psychology. By constantly being played by the four horsemen, he shifted the attention of the people around him and the media to the four horsemen, while he controlled the overall situation behind. That is what we call "the most dangerous place is also the safest place". Inattentional blindness makes it difficult for everyone (except the audience with a God's perspective) to think that Dylan is the "mastermind" who planned these bank robberies.

Image source: Meizhuo.com

I believe that you have a certain understanding of some common magic tricks after reading this. The most basic induction and sleight of hand are believed to be difficult to fool you. However, the author hopes that everyone can think less and enjoy and relax more when entertaining. After all, only by falling into the magician's trap can you enjoy the fun of magic, right?

References:

[1] Zhou Aibao, Wang Zhidan. A review of hypnosis research from the perspective of cognitive neuroscience. [J] Progress in Psychological Science. 2011(6)537-541

[2] Sun Shijin. The influence of attention strategy instructions on the Stroop effect in hypnosis and wakefulness. [J] Psychological Science. 1994(17): 287–296.

[3] Wei Jinghan, Yan Kele. Foundations of Cognitive Neuroscience[M]. Beijing. People’s Education Press, 2008. 589–59

Author: Yang Xiaosheng