Anybody But A Magician? Simon Henderson November 2019 Version 1.2
© 2020 Simon Henderson
deceptionbydesign.com Anybody But A Magician?
Acknowledgements boxes. However, he warns you that the work is incredibly risky. If the unit gets A version of this article first appeared in things wrong based on your advice, people Volume 2 ofThe Shift(2020) by Ben Earl, might die. His undercover officers, his published bystudio52magic.com . informers inside the organisation, the trafficking victims, and even members of Original cover photo by Kranich17 (edited). the trafficking organisation itself could all pixabay.com/photos/hare-hat-cylinder- be at risk. conjure-4103102/ Should you, could you, and would you accept Tom’s request to act as deception Introduction consultant? What concerns might you have? What questions would you ask? “To be aware of limitations is already And do you believe that you could to be beyond them.” genuinely help? Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, In: Davis (1989, p. 18) This example is fictitious, but such situations do occur in real-life. Indeed, At one of your performances, sitting close there is a long history of magicians working to the front of the audience, a middle-aged with organisations such as the military, man watches your every move intently police, and intelligence services to assist while periodically scribbling in a notebook. them with their deceptive activities. After the show, he approaches you, and Magicians hold names like Jean Robert introduces himself as Tom. He tells you Houdin, Houdini, C.R. Winnington, John how much he enjoyed your show. Then, Mullholland, and Jasper Maskelyne in high after some obligatory small talk, he informs regard for their contributions outside of you that he’s a police officer and that he magic (despite such regard sometimes needs your help. being misplaced – a topic I shall return to in a future article). The deception expert Tom leads a unit that is working on a Barton Whaley (whom I shall also discuss particularly challenging problem – in a future article) drew from magic infiltrating and disrupting a major people throughout his military and intelligence trafficking and modern slavery operation. careers, writing several books that have The unit’s challenge involves detecting and since become standard references in the understanding the covert logistics network magic community (e.g. Whaley, 1990; and strategies used by an international Whaley et al., 1991; Whaley, 2001). He also criminal organisation to hide and transport worked with several notable magicians, vulnerable individuals across borders and publicly acknowledging his collaborations through checkpoints using a variety of with Martin Gardner and Jeff Busby; and he different routes, vehicles, safe houses, and successfully used magic as the basis for associated smuggling strategies. His unit developing counter-deception training for wishes to infiltrate the network, placing an the US Navy (Whaley & Busby, 2002). undercover officer inside the organisation so they can report back on what is And yet, whenever such organisations happening. They also want to turn and approach me about employing magicians, I recruit several members from inside the always urge caution. In this article, I will organisation, to provide information on its explain why. people, methods and operations. The military and magicians perhaps seem Tom says he was blown away by your like natural bedfellows (especially from skills, and he would like to use you to assist each other’s perspectives!). However, this his unit with designing their operation. In view may, in part reflect the Dunning- particular, he is keen to use your abilities to Kruger Effect, a phenomenon identified in manipulate others psychologically into research by Kruger and Dunning (Kruger & doing what you want, to read their Dunning, 1999; Dunning, 2014) which thoughts, to predict their behaviour, and to suggests that: make people vanish from the inside of
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“… people who don’t know much Magic entertains and provides its about a given set of cognitive, target (i.e. audience) with a technical, or social skills tend to positive experience. grossly overestimate their prowess and performance…”. The ultimate goal of magic is to entertain (Kruger & Dunning, 1999) an audience. While other domains of deceptive practice share this goal (such as In simple terms, one needs to know a lot movie special effects, narrative fiction, about a given topic to realise that one theatre, etc.), it does not transfer to many hardly knows anything. The more you learn, other fields of deceptive practice. In such the more you discover there is still to learn. domains, entertainment serves no function, the deception does not result in a positive Consequently, when military commanders experience for the target, and the engage with magicians (say, as a result of a deception may deliberately deprive the commander seeing a magician table- target of value (for example, police hopping in a restaurant), a significant gap in infiltrating a violent criminal organisation to their shared understanding about gather evidence to enable arrest and deception most likely exists, that may not prosecution). Magic is ill-equipped to be immediately apparent. However, such address the multitude of issues that arise differences soon become apparent once from these kinds of environments, including they begin working together. As a result, concerns about risk, ethics, legality, while the military and other organisations accountability, auditability, etc. have previously approached magicians to support them, these relationships rarely The audience at a magic show seem to be sustained beyond an initial always knows when deception engagement. has occurred.
In this article, I shall explore in more detail Magic always necessitates a reveal that this relationship, and illustrate how some of informs the spectator (i.e. target) that the the limitations and gaps in deception within magic (i.e. deception) has taken place. For magic compromise its ability to generalise example, the magician vanishes the coin, and transfer to other domains. The article locates the selected card, or reveals the intends to encourage magicians to spectator’s thought of PIN code, etc. In consider how an understanding of broader many applications, there must be no reveal aspects of deception that usually sit - indeed, deception is only effective if it is outside of their craft, might inform and never suspected, let alone detected. This improve it (as per the opening quotation situation would be similar to a magician from Hegel). Later in the article, I will performing a show that no audience ever consider where magiccan make a valuable sees, hears about, or acknowledges in any contribution to other domains and offer way. some suggestions for how you might learn from other deceptive practices. Magic inevitably prompts questioning of the method.
Things About Magic The moment of revelation in magic That Do Not Translate precipitates a process of backtracking (and potentially, reverse engineering) as the Well into Other Domains audience attempts to unpick how the effect worked. This moment occurs irrespective of Deceptive Practice of how immersed they were in the narrative. And while magicians often seek explicitly to Magic has a broad set of orientations, divorce method from effect, backtracking intentions and other characteristics that nonetheless occurs. In other domains, the limit the transfer of its principles and target must never initiate this process, or methods to other domains. The following develop any awareness of the deceptive examples exemplify these issues. method employed (for example, if the
Page 2 Anybody But A Magician? deception has employed covert experts on magic theory are not necessarily capabilities). good performers. Consequently, when transferring magic theory to another Magic exploits the audience’s domain, a lack of practical execution naivety about the domain. experience is likely to hamper the effectiveness of both transfer and Most audience members at a magic show execution. Lack of practical experience know nothing about the deceptive means means that there is no basis for anticipating used by the magician to achieve his or her possible problems, which increases effects. Members of the public are not operational risk significantly (as it is not familiar with sleights, gaffs, misdirection, or feasible to develop mitigation and any other technical aspect of magic. contingency strategies). If you were hiring However, in many other domains, a somebody to advise you on performing a deceiver has to fool targets who are song in public, would you hire the themselves experts in both the domain and songwriter or the seasoned professional deception itself (e.g. in military deception, singer? casino cheating, financial fraud, art fraud, sports, etc.). Magic creators and performers do not necessarily make good magic Magic performers are not teachers. necessarily magic creators. Knowing how to design and or perform Many magicians construct their shows magic does not necessarily mean that you based on both classic effects and plots, can teach others about how to design or and on routines that they have learned from perform it. And nor does it mean that you other published performers. For example, a can teach others about deception. performer may base his ambitious card Magicians are often good at describing routine on one performer’s core plot what is happening in front of their eyes but elements and sleights, with new sleights usually are not good at explaining what is added from a range of other sources. The happening behind them. As a result, they process of learning, practising and may struggle to explain the cognitive performing other performer’s routines and processes involved in designing and moves is an entirely valid and practical performing magic, which may limit any basis for entertaining an audience. transfer achieved. Teaching requires a set However, this form of professional practice of skills that are different from the skills is markedly quite different from the process involved in designing and performing ofcreating original effects or sleights. magic. If you were hiring somebody to Studying how people follow a prescriptive teach you how to sing, would you hire the process does not reveal anything about the songwriter, the performer, or the creative requirements that underpin experienced singing teacher? effective design and execution of deceptive action. Whereas studying original creators Magic knowledge does not exist of magic may reveal much about the in readily transferable forms. creative process that is exploitable in other domains. If you were hiring a professional Published work on magic generally fails to to help you write a song, would you hire the incorporate deceptive approaches that can original songwriter or the cover artist who be applied readily in other domains. Books performs their songs? that describe a set of magic effects are often of minimal value. Books on magic Magic creators are not necessarily theory tend to have more utility, although magic performers. translation to another domain can often prove difficult. For example, Lamont and Knowing how to accomplish an effect is not Wiseman’s methodological taxonomy of the same as being able to perform the magic (Lamont & Wiseman, 2005, pp. 8-25) effect. This relationship between theory and provides a readily available set of strategies practice is brought out clearly within the for accomplishing certain types of effect. field of magic, where magicians who are These strategies are transferable to any
Page 3 Anybody But A Magician? domain where related effects need to be to terminate any relationship with those created (such as vanishes, appearances, who wantonly exploit them for publicity. transpositions, transformations, or other effects). Magic constitutes an impoverished repertoire of Other books (e.g. Tamariz, 1988; Banachek, deceptive methods. 1998; Lamont & Wiseman, 2005 etc; Ortiz, 2006; Higham, 2009, 2011; Earl, 2017) The deceptive methods employed by contain similarly exploitable principles. magic constitute only a small subset of a However, principles alone have limited broader set of deception techniques that utility without an understanding of how they exist across other domains. Magic excels in support a deception or counter-deception attention management and perceptual design process. There is a need for manipulation but is considerably weaker practical knowledge about how to adapt when it comes to strategies for principles to the specifics of the problem manipulating sensemaking, expectations, space, how to manage the risks emotion and behaviour. A deception associated with such principles, how such designer can, therefore, benefit from using principles may fail, and how to maintain the deceptive strategies from across a wider principles and or update them in light of a variety of domains to increase the rapidly changing operational environment. likelihood of their deception working (for example, zoology identifies around 20 Publicity is the lifeblood of different types of mimicry, each of which magicians, and they sometimes has its unique features and subtleties). exaggerate their capabilities and Magic provides only a thin slice of a experience. broader set of deceptive strategies and has little to contribute to the range of other Magicians make many exaggerated claims viable manipulation vectors. For example, regards the extent of their knowledge about adversarial deception within cyberspace deception (e.g. claiming to be a master evolves at a considerable rate and involves ‘deceptionist’, a master of psychology, or strategies that sit entirely outside of any an expert in human behaviour and regular magical knowledge. psychological manipulation). Advertising on magic websites is (understandably) also Magicians publish their deceptive often exaggerated, selective, or misleading; techniques. and many magicians dubiously attribute effects achieved using sleights and gaffs to Within an adversarial relationship, psychological manipulation, which, while innovation generates competitive seductive, leads to popular misconceptions advantage. Using deceptive strategies that about what is feasible. Such situations may your target is already familiar with clearly also prove perilous if magicians are hired lessens the likelihood that such strategies based on this advertising to advise on will be effective. Consequently, as applications that require genuine magicians tend to publish their techniques, psychological manipulation when real lives an adversary could in principle study and are at stake. learn these techniques to lessen the likelihood of being deceived by them. When While there is an emerging and legitimate life is potentially on the line, it is imperative scientific base of psychological research that the adversary does not suspect or founded upon the study of magic, a client’s detect your deception - so using published ability to assess the potential utility of strategies may not be the most secure magic in their domain is clouded by such option for maintaining operational security! falsehood and exaggeration. Also, Innovation, craftiness and cunning are magicians, whose lifeblood is public critical means to stay one step ahead of attention, may consider their association your adversaries. with the military or other organisations as valuable fodder for publicity. Given how Next, we shall consider various aspects of these organisations operate, they are likely deceptive practice that magic fails to address.
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Aspects of Deceptive of violence and threat to life in other domains means that planning and Practice That Magic execution process must address a range of Fails to Address critical risk, management, duty of care, and other related considerations that magic has Professional deceptive practice in other little capacity to address. domains includes a broad set of requirements and challenges that magic is Other domains rely on deception generally ill-equipped to address. These as a tool for enabling behaviour factors include the complexity of the change. operational environment, the adversarial relationship within which deception is Magic achieves its effects primarily through employed, organisational issues, innovation the manipulation of attention and and technology, and the necessity for perception, leading the audience to make enhanced risk management. The following sense of an apparently impossible event. In sections address these issues. this respect, magic stops short at sensemaking and does address strategies Some domains employ deception that seek intentionally to change the in the context of an adversarial target’s behaviour through the deception. relationship. In other domains, behaviour change is a In many domains of deceptive practice, a key desired outcome of deception. For target aggressively seeks to do everything example, in warfare, deception may be in its power to undermine any deception used by one force to make the target force used against them. This active process of believe that an attack will occur in location counter-deception begins before any X, so that they move their forces to defend deceptive design process has started on this location while leaving the real location your part. The target may be spying on, for the attack, Y, undefended. infiltrating, recruiting people from inside of, and generally collecting all available In contrast, magic does not seek to target information on your entire operation, and change the behaviour of its audience including your design of deceptive action. (although there may be some incidental This situation is akin to a magician changes in behaviour, such as the designing a new show when the audience spectator not demanding their money has full access to his laptop and back, etc.). This requirement for behaviour notebooks, is talking to all of his colleagues change gives rise to a whole host of and associates, and is listening-in covertly subsidiary requirements that magic is not to all of his conversations. well suited to address, including target audience analysis, behavioural deception The target may also pool its resources to strategies, measurement of effect, uncover you, including its collection behavioural analytics, etc. capabilities, expertise, reference materials, and various analytical capabilities. To In most professional deceptive magicians, this situation would be like Penn settings, there is a requirement to and Teller’s ‘Fool Us’ on steroids! The measure the effectiveness of audience would comprise only highly deception. experienced magicians, who have access to a vast library of magic books and A fundamental requirement in many associated online resources, plus your deceptive settings is for the deceiver to be laptop and notebooks, and have lots of able to measure the effectiveness of their time to study, review and discuss all of your deception. By measuring an ongoing designs to reach a consensus. deceptive action, it becomes feasible to take corrective action if things are not To make matters worse, uncovering going to plan. By measuring the outcome deception within these other domains may of the action, the proceeding actions can have extreme consequences that sit be linked to the outcome, enabling causal entirely outside the world of magic. The risk analysis that supports experiential learning.
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Analysing the aetiology of deceptive failure Some deception needs to operate is also essential to learning. Measures also across multiple spectra. form part of the audit trail for the operation, enabling better comprehension by external Magicians primarily work in the visual and scrutineers. auditory fields (although some effects do involve touch, scent, taste, etc.). However, The notion of measurement in deception in many other settings, deception has to be tends to be far more prosaic – did the executed across a spectrum of different audience clap? There are no formal channels. For example, early military decoy frameworks for tracing causality within tanks were rendered transparent by the magic, and no means for assessing the development of infrared sensing degree to which deception itself affects capabilities, leading to the development of sensemaking and consequent behavioural more advanced decoys that could mimic outcomes. the heat signatures of real tanks. To a magician, the challenges of modern In many deceptive domains, there battlefield deception would the equivalent is a critical requirement for to trying to design a coin vanish for an accountability and establishment audience that is equipped with a bank of of an audit path cameras covering every angle, real-time x- ray scanners, thermal imaging cameras, 3D In many professional settings where scanning systems, body tracking systems, deception is part of the operational tool- Magnetic Resonance Imaging systems, AI- bag, there is a critical need for based image recognition systems, and accountability and auditability. Justification fingerprint and DNA analysis systems, etc. for the use of deception as the means to Magicians lack familiarity with these achieve desired operational outcomes must collection channels, yet they are address: fundamental to many deception domains.
· Necessity (there are no other viable There is often a requirement to means to achieve the desired create multiple-order deceptive outcome), effects.
· Legality (the use of deception does In magic, it is the magician who interacts not break any laws), with and deceives the audience. In other domains, the deceiver may need to · Proportionality (the benefit manage risk by deceiving the target obtained through the use of distally via the use of third parties, cut-outs deception outweighs significantly and intermediary technologies. Also, as any negative impacts, such as magic does not address behaviour change, intrusion, disruption, etc.), and it does not consider secondary and multiple order effects and makes no · Ethics (the operational intent, provision for controlling the associated execution and outcomes are all risks. Managing multiple order effects can morally sound). be complicated and requires careful planning, execution control, and Deceivers are also required to expose their comprehensive risk management. working methods to others for scrutiny and oversight. They must explain and justify Deceptive risks in many domains their rationale for using deception, their have severe consequences. detailed planning process, the critical decisions made, options rejected, how they Risks in magic tend to be constrained, and managed risk, and how intent got if realised, generally have low-consequence translated into action. Magicians are outcomes. The spectator may spot the unfamiliar with such fundamental secret move, forget the card they selected, requirements of professional practice and and equipment might fail, etc. would be surprised by the levels of detail Consequences of the effect failing might and degree of scrutiny involved. include the audience being disappointed,
Page 6 Anybody But A Magician? reputational damage, and in the most Much deception requires unlikely and extreme of cases, the magician husbanding of assets. dying. However, in most instances where a performance goes wrong, the magician is In magic deception supports a usually able to bluff, obfuscate the performance, and the structure of the effect problem, and move on without dictates its timing. In other domains, the consequence (the audience being specific timing of deception may prove distracted by the next effect). In many other crucial. The scheduling of particular domains, failed deception poses a strategies, the moment of committing significant risk to life (potentially in the scarce resources, and the associated hundreds, if not thousands of lives), global heightening of risk require careful reputation, international relationships, consideration. Axelrod (1979) addresses national security, and organisational the dilemma between holding back continuance. The scale of such risks deception until it is absolutely needed, extends significantly beyond the bounds of versus letting the deceptive capability any magician’s professional practice. ‘wither on the vine’. Such concepts have little relevance in magic. Much deception relies upon Target Audience Analysis. Deception sometimes needs to be executed under an assumed Magic relies on generic principles of identity. deception that transcend domain, target types, cultures, etc., including strategies for Magicians generally desire publicity and controlling attention and shaping adulation, and accept any available credit perception. These approaches work going! More seriously, a magician’s public without any necessity first to analyse and reputation and recognition is core to understand the target, to then tailor the winning future business. In other domains, deception towards them. The practice of these characteristics are precisely the deception in many other domains requires opposite of what is required to deceive a specific understanding of the target. For successfully. Indeed, deceivers may need example, the target’s cultural norms may to operate under cover of a legend (false need to be understood so that objects and identity) while simultaneously executing a actions can be made culturally relevant, broader set of deceptive actions. This patterns made culturally meaningful, and situation would be like a magician likely behaviours in response to events and performing two, if not three or four, different situations understood. Magic does not effects simultaneously. have the tools to address and translate such requirements into the design of Within many organisations, deceptive action. deception is a team sport.
Deception timescales may be Most organisations that have a professional lengthy. requirement to deceive others do so based on collective effort. Different departments In many domains, deception and its effects within the organisation bring their specialist have to be executed and sustained over skills to bear on the design process. lengthy periods, such as days, weeks, Planning occurs collaboratively in small months and sometimes even years. In such groups. Proposed deceptive activity cases, the deception may be gradual and progresses through multiple organisational cumulative. In contrast, deception in magic levels of scrutiny and review. And deceptive occurs over relatively short time frames intent is communicated to other parts of (usually minutes), and there is no notion of the organisation for execution. Magic does longitudinal sustainment. No magician, for not address collective process for example, is ever required to make the deception planning, including formulation Statue of Liberty disappear for several and communication of deceptive intent, years. organisational processes for managing risk, or the regulatory processes of audit, scrutiny and sign-off.
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In other domains, the relationship and counter-deception? In my classes, I between deception and counter- have successfully used magic to enable deception is symbiotic. students to experience first-hand various fundamental tenets of counter-deception. Say you want to be the world’s best military By first fooling students, then unpacking deceiver. You might wish to spend as much and deconstructing their experience, it is time as possible with the world’s best feasible to create a solid basis for teaching military counter-deception experts, learning them new processes to detect and counter how they detect, unpick and respond to the deception in their professional practice. presence of deception. By learning what The use of magic is always a course you could be up against, you create an highlight, and several students have felt opportunity to enhance your deceptive sufficiently inspired to pursue magic further. practice to meet and overcome such Future articles will explore further the role challenges. This same principle applies to of magic in teaching counter-deception. any deceptive craft. Say you wanted to be the world’s best undercover police officer. Magic is useful for teaching You might wish to spend time with the principles of deception that are world’s ‘best’ criminals to identify how they counterintuitive. spot undercover cops, what they do about it, and what you need to blend in Teaching students to perform simple magic unnoticed. Deception and counter- effects can enable them to learn first-hand deception are symbiotic practices - one many deceptive principles that apply to practice cannot help but learn from their domain of practice, including those studying the theory, expertise, methods, that are highly counterintuitive. For tools, and hard-won experience of the example, creating psychological invisibility other. through motivated action is difficult for novice deceivers to understand, to the Who do magicians hang-out with when extent that they often refuse to believe it they want to improve their deceptive can work. I have addressed this issue by practice? In lieu of any viable counterpart, teaching students to perform the classic they, unfortunately, tend to hang-out with ‘Twisted Arms’, or ‘Crossed-Arms’ Illusion other magicians. (Pogue, 1998, pp. 285-288) which additionally helps them to experience the impact of guilty knowledge. Many What Aspects of Magic principles of deception are incredibly Can Be Transferred counterintuitive and difficult to comprehend. As such, they can be Readily to Other challenging to practise safely as a prerequisite to employing the techniques in Domains? the real-world.
Despite all these and other limitations, the Magic is good for the study of good news is that magiccan make a real perceptual manipulation. and significant contribution to other domains, albeit in specific areas, and with Manipulation of an audience’s attention and some significant caveats. Examples are perception underpins all magic. As a result, now discussed. magic has generated a large body of knowledge about such manipulation, most Magic has significant utility for of which can be transferred directly to other teaching counter-deception. domains. Formal analyses of these strategies are limited, especially in a form One of the challenges in teaching counter- that is exploitable within the design of deception is how to use deception in the deceptive action - see Sharpe (1985); classroom. How can students be genuinely Macknik et al. (2011); Bruno (2013); Kuhn deceived in a manner that is safe, et al. (2014), etc. However, other domains controlled, yet still demonstrates that have a requirement to hide, vanish, fundamental principles about deception disguise, transport, change the appearance
Page 8 Anybody But A Magician? of, or otherwise manipulate objects (and What Can Magicians processes) could learn much from the study of magic. Learn from Deceptive Magic provides a valuable Practice in Other repository of knowledge on Domains? deceptive improvisation. “What on earth!? Why have I just read In many deceptive domains, there is a need through a long list of what magicdoesn’t to adapt deceptive action on-the-fly. do? How is this supposed to help me to Moltke (1892) suggests that “No plan become a more deceptive magician?” survives first contact with the enemy”, meaning that all plans require adaptation as In case you were wondering, there are two a result of encountering the unexpected. answers. While all improvisation is challenging, improvising while deceiving is especially First, consider again the opening quotation tricky. If things go wrong, or the target from Hegel. Having read this article, you detects an element of the deception, or the are now aware of some of the limitations of target challenges the deceiver, or if entirely deception, as it sits within your craft. By unexpected opportunities arise, how might being aware of these limits, you have the deceiver most effectively get out of already moved beyond them. You are now trouble, make the best of the situation, better informed, more self-aware, and while still fooling the target? know things about deception that magic is not well suited to address. When you next Magic is one of the few deceptive domains hear the term “deception” used in the that formally considers improvisation. While context of magic, you will understand its the information on this topic is somewhat limited relevance, which puts you head and limited, several valuable resources provide shoulders above others in the community a wealth of strategies that can be who use the term indiscriminately. And if transferred directly to other domains. For you ever find yourself invited to apply your example, Justin Higham’s work on skills in a domain outside of magic, you improvisation in card magic (Higham, 2009, now have a list of the challenges you may 2011) contains strategies that can assist encounter and can be better prepared to with each of the situations described address these issues when they arise. above. Few other domains have much to Better yet, you might consider raising these contribute to this aspect of deception. issues with your client before you agree to start work with them! Other aspects of magic that are transferrable across deceptive Second, there are some significant domains opportunities for learning and creativity lurking behind these limitations. Consider Many other principles and practices of turning each limitation into an opportunity magic are exploitable in other deceptive by asking questions such as “Why doesn’t domains. Such principles include aspects magic…?”, “What would happen if I…?”, of character development, practice and “Why don’t I try…?”, etc. rehearsal, performance dynamics, patter, aspects of plot and storytelling, audience Here are some examples: engagement and management, mentalism and conjuring with information (which is · What could I learn from the especially pertinent to cyberspace), practice of deception in other aspects of two-person telepathy for covert domains? How might my craft be communications, etc., as well as many impacted by a better understanding others. of animal deception (Stevens, 2016), deception in marketing and advertising (Boush et al., 2009), deception in cyberspace (Malin et al., 2017), art forgery (Hebborn,
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2004), or military deception · What could I learn from studying (Rothstein & Whaley, 2013), etc.? the principles of counter- deception (e.g. Whaley, 2006; · What strategies used in these Bennett & Waltz, 2007; Clarke & other domains could I incorporate Mitchell, 2019)? How would this into my existing routines to make my magic stronger? improve their impact? What principles from other fields of · Who is my magic counter- deceptive practice might generate deception counterpart? Where ideas for new effects? could I find such an individual? What could I learn from them, and · How might my magic improve if I how might they improve my skills? had a better understanding of the If such an individual doesn’t exist, psychology of deception? What how could I create them? What could I learn from studying books might I do instead? about how people attend to their environment within the context of · What if deception was a scarce magic (Macknik et al., 2011), how and precious resource that had to people process visual information be used sparingly in my routines? (Herman, 2016), how expectations What ideas might be triggered by shape behaviour (Berdik, 2012), or employing principles identified by how people make decisions (Klein, Axelrod (1979)? How could I 1998), etc. increase the surprise and impact of my effects using these ideas? How · Why doesn’t magic have any might I achieve the same or more measures for assessing the depth significant impact by minimising my to which audience members have use of deception, and simplifying, been fooled? How would I reducing and streamlining my measure this? What could I do if effects? such measures were available?
· Why doesn’t magic focus more on Summary manipulating sensemaking, emotion, expectations and In this article, I have considered how behaviour? What new effects might deception in magic has limitations and I create if I focused on ways of omissions that make it difficult to shaping these processes in an generalise and transfer to other domains. audience? The article intends to encourage magicians to consider how an understanding of · How might I employ risk broader aspects of deception that usually management processes from sit outside of their craft, might inform and other deceptive domains to help improve it. And I have also sought to red-team, debug, de-risk and identify where the practice of deception in improve my sleights and routines? other domains may benefit from exploiting What new ways of looking at my principles of magic, and vice versa. effects could help reveal opportunities to make them more As a final thought, knowing what you now deceptive? know about the relationship between deception and magic, would you be more · What would happen if an or less likely to accept Tom’s job offer as audience could view my routines deception consultant? using infrared and x-ray imaging devices? What would they discover? What might I learn from this?
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References Higham, J. (2011).The KOSBE System: The Mechanics of Improvisation in Card Axelrod, R. (1979). The Rational Timing of Magic. London: Justin Higham. Surprise.World Politics, 31(2), 228-246. Klein, G. A. (1998).Sources of Power: How Banachek, S. (1998).Psychological Subtleties. People Make Decisions. Cambridge, Mississippi: Express Printing. Mass.: MIT Press.
Bennett, M., & Waltz, E. (2007). Kruger, J., & Dunning, D. (1999). Unskilled and Counterdeception: Principles and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Applications for National Security. Recognising One’s Own Incompetence Norwood, MA: Artech House. Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments. Journal of Personality and Social Berdik, C. (2012).Mind Over Mind: The Psychology, 77(6), 1121-1134. Surprising Power of Expectations.New York: Current. Kuhn, G., Caffaratti, H. A., Teszka, R., & Rensink, R. A. (2014). A Boush, D. M., Friestad, M., & Wright, P. (2009). Psychologically-Based Taxonomy of Deception In The Marketplace: The Misdirection.Front Psychol, 5, 1392. Psychology Of Deceptive Persuasion and Consumer Self-protection.New Lamont, P., & Wiseman, R. (2005).Magic in York: Routledge. Theory. Hertfordshire: University of Hertfordshire Press. Bruno, J. (2013).Anatomy of Misdirection (35th Anniversary Edition, Revised and Macknik, S., Martinez-Conde, S., & Blakeslee, Updated): Joseph Bruno. S. (2011).Sleights of Mind: What the Neuroscience of Magic Reveals About Clarke, R. M., & Mitchell, W. L. (2019). Our Everyday Deceptions. London: Deception: Counterdeception and Profile Books. Counterintelligence. Washington: CQ Press. Malin, C. H., Gudaitis, T., Holt, T. J., & Kilget, M. (2017).Deception in the Digital Age: Davis, W. A. (1989).Inwardness and Existence: Exploiting and Defending Human Subjectivity in/and Hegel, Heidegger, Targets Through Computer-Mediated Marx, and Freud: Univ of Wisconsin Communications. London: Academic Press. Press.
Dunning, D. (2014). We Are All Confident Idiots. Moltke, H., Graf von. (1892).Militarische Werke Retrieved 20/06/2019 from https:// (vol. 2, part 2). Berlin: Ernst Sigfried psmag.com/social-justice/confident- Mittler & Son. idiots-92793 Ortiz, D. (2006).Designing Miracles. El Dorado Earl, B. (2017).
Stevens, M. (2016).Cheats and Deceits. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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Whaley, B., & Busby, J. (2002). Detecting Deception: Practice, Practitioners and Theory. In R. Godson & J. J. Wirtz (Eds.), Strategic Denial and Deception: The Twenty-First Century Challenge (pp. 181-221). New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers.
Whaley, B. (2006). Detecting Deception: A Bibliography of Counterdeception Across Time, Cultures, and Disciplines. Washington, DC: US Foreign Denial & Deception Committee.
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