Tactical Blinking in Magicians: A Tool for Self- and Other-Deception

Magicians frequently rehearse their sleight of hand before a mirror in order to gain the perspective of their audience. However, magic instructors often warn that this practice can lead to self-deception, as many novice magicians unconsciously blink their eyes when engaging in deceptive action, thereby blinding themselves to evidence of their proficiency. There are few concrete examples of self-deception in the literature that provide definitive evidence in support of deep self-deception, where a person both knows the truth and pushes that truth outside their consciousness. In the experiment reported here, we attempted to elicit magicians' blinking behavior under well-controlled laboratory conditions and to identify variables that impact a performer's tendency to engage in it. We invited magicians to learn a difficult set of coin magic sleights over the course of a week and to perform the routine in a rehearsal setting (with a mirror) and a performance setting (without a mirror). We quantified blink rates in the videos of these performances. Indeed, magicians were more likely to blink when engaging in deceptive action than when not, and blinking was more prevalent when performing more difficult sleights. However, this tactical blinking was only evident in the performance setting. We suggest that rather than serving as self-deception, tactical blinking may enhance deception of the audience through encouragement of synchronized blinking in spectators. Alternatively, self-deception may emerge later in the learning process, after some basic motor proficiency has been established.