that these types of performances really do
change people’s beliefs, and that puts me
in a difficult position. On the one hand I
work as a scientist who is trying to inform
people and debunk myths about the brain;
yet I am using magic to misinform them.
So that has led me to a point where I feel
there are, ethically, magic tricks that I
would like to do – but cannot.”
Despite this research, not everyone
agrees that magic has shown it has a big
role to play in advancing our knowledge
of psychology and neuroscience. “I
think a lot of magic tricks are very good
illustrations of stuff psychologists
already know,” says Richard Wiseman,
professor of the public understanding
of psychology at the University of
Hertfordshire, and himself a magician.
Kuhn is unperturbed. “When I started
this work in 2004, 2005, a lot of fellow
scientists laughed a little bit,” he says.
“They said it was kind of quaint and cool,
but can it actually tell us anything of
interest? And I think now we are showing
they are wrong.” He points to the large
number of papers he and his colleagues
have published that use magic illusions to
throw light on the workings of the mind –
particularly on how easy it is to manipulate
decision-making and deeply held opinions.
In a world of fake news, he says, magic’s
strong connection with deception will
help us understand more about the mind’s
limitations when it comes to working out
what is true and what is not.
For Kuhn, the scientific study of magic
today is in a similar place to the study
of consciousness in the 1980s. “Any
academic going into psychology then,”
he says, “and saying they were studying
consciousness would have been told
that can’t be a serious science because
you can’t measure it. Now it’s one of
the coolest topics in science.” And he
has shown that all of us – scientists and
lay people alike – need to be a little less
confident of what we know to be “true”.
As we file out of the lecture theatre into
the late-afternoon sun, two prospective
psychology undergraduates behind me
are still talking about the show.
“I know what he said about the dice
and stuff,” said one, a girl who was about
17, “but I still think there was something
weird about that guy. He could read
minds.” “Definitely,” said her friend, a
male student. “That definitely exists.” David Baker wrote about the need for
Gustav Kuhn internet reform in issue 01.18