By Andrew Mackenzie

The eyes are powerful.  Our eyes can inform others of our actions, attitudes, intentions and emotions. The power of the eyes is demonstrated quite considerably with the observation that humans have an almost irresistible urge to look in the direction that they see others looking.  Illusionists (or, magicians; depending on your level of credulity) are able to harness this “shared attention” phenomenon to great effect.  Close-up magic and card tricks, for example, often rely on the audience’s natural tendency to follow the gaze of the individual performing the trick – a simple, yet effective tool in the illusionist’s repertoire.

As someone who would describe myself as a visual cognitive psychologist and as someone who has been performing card tricks from an early age, it made sense to investigate and now teach the integration of these topics.  In a recent trip to Yokohama, Japan, I had the opportunity to give a guest lecture at Yokohama City University teaching Undergraduate Linguistic and Communication students about how we can use the eyes to deceive. Take a look at the video below and see if you can identify how it was done! 

But, for me, it goes beyond teaching the psychology of how we deceive in magic for fun.  It grew into exposing those that do this in a misleading way. I owe a great deal to the likes of James Randi and Penn & Teller. These individuals have made it their business to demonstrate the dangers of going beyond entertaining illusions where people trick others into believe in something that is not there.  I call these people…the spoon benders. The likes of Uri Gellar. The psychics!

Andrew Mackenzie demonstrating the power of the eyes to deceive, during his guest lecture at Yokohama City University


I will be presenting at the Nottingham Pint of Science Festival from the 7-9th September* within the theme of ‘Beautiful Minds’ where the focus is on tricking the mind.  The main aim is to open up scientific research to the general public in a relaxed and informal setting (in a pub); bringing researchers and members of the public together. My talk will explore the psychology of gaze following and how we might put this to into practice within the world of deception using examples of card tricks and key bending. (And will probably involve a little Uri Gellar bashing too…).

Andrew Mackenzie on Twitter @DrAndyMack

* Festival details correct at time of publication. See http://www.pintofscience.co.uk for latest updates, as well as their blog and podcast.

Header image credit: Rhett Wesley on Unsplash