I had always thought that magicians trick us by misdirecting our gaze. More often, they actually misdirect our attention, says Alex Stone, a journalist and an amateur magician who wrote Fooling Houdini: Magicians, Mentalists, Math Geeks & the Hidden Powers of the Mind (Harper).
What’s the difference? Our attention can be diverted even if our eyes never look away. For example, magicians often ask their audiences questions during their magic acts. Those questions might sound like they’re just part of the usual showman’s patter, but they have a hidden purpose. Answering questions—or just considering potential answers—is so distracting to our minds that even if we keep our eyes glued to the magician’s hands, we tend to fail to notice what those hands are doing.
Psychologists call this “inattentional blindness,” and it isn’t just a magician’s trick—it can be a potentially deadly road hazard.
Many drivers think that hands-free devices make it safe to talk on cell phones while behind the wheel. But talking on a cell phone while driving isn’t dangerous primarily because it ties up our hands or even because we might glance away from the road momentarily to dial. It’s dangerous because, like answering a magician’s questions, speaking on a phone can distract our minds so much that we fail to register things that occur right before our eyes.
There is some good news—it’s relatively safe to chat with passengers who are in the vehicle as we drive. A passenger typically pays a degree of attention to the road, too, providing a second set of eyes—and a second mind—that can help compensate for driver distraction. It isn’t ideal—but talking on the phone is much worse.
