title: Influencing choice without awareness.
abstract: Forcing occurs when a magician influences the audience's decisions without their awareness. To investigate the mechanisms behind this effect, we examined several stimulus and personality predictors. In Study 1, a magician flipped through a deck of playing cards while participants were asked to choose one. Although the magician could influence the choice almost every time (98%), relatively few (9%) noticed this influence. In Study 2, participants observed rapid series of cards on a computer, with one target card shown longer than the rest. We expected people would tend to choose this card without noticing that it was shown longest. Both stimulus and personality factors predicted the choice of card, depending on whether the influence was noticed. These results show that combining real-world and laboratory research can be a powerful way to study magic and can provide new methods to study the feeling of free will.
authors: Department of Psychiatry, 1033 Pine Avenue West, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 1A1, Canada; The Lady Davis Institute at the SMDB Jewish General Hospital, Montreal, QC, Canada. Electronic address: jay.olson@mail.mcgill.ca.
authors: Jay A
authors: JA
authors: Olson
authors: School of Business, Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Main Building, Room 206, 12666 72 Avenue, Surrey, BC V3W 2M8, Canada.
authors: Alym A
authors: AA
authors: Amlani
authors: Department of Psychiatry, 1033 Pine Avenue West, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 1A1, Canada; The Lady Davis Institute at the SMDB Jewish General Hospital, Montreal, QC, Canada.
authors: Amir
authors: A
authors: Raz
authors: Departments of Psychology and Computer Science, University of British Columbia, 2136 West Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada.
authors: Ronald A
authors: RA
authors: Rensink
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001364:Awareness / Q000502:physiology*; D002755:Choice Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008273:Magic / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D010551:Personality / Q000502:physiology*; D014836:Volition / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Decision making; Forcing; Free will; Magic; Persuasion; Sense of agency; Volition