Don't look now: The magic of misdirection

This chapter discusses that eye movements were recorded as observers watched a magician perform a trick on a live one-to-one basis. All observers watched the trick twice. Half of the observers were informed in advance that they would be watching a trick and half were not. Observers tended to follow the magician's gaze, particularly in the second half of the trick. Even informed observers were susceptible to the magician's social cues for joint attention, following his gaze during the trick. While knowing that they would be watching a trick was not sufficient for observers to defeat the magician's misdirection, watching the trick a second time was; all observers were able to describe how the magician made a cigarette disappear after viewing the trick a second time. Findings not only demonstrate an everyday example of inattentional blindness, but also that social cues for joint attention provide the magician with a powerful means of misdirecting his/her audience successfully.