Sleights of Mind

Sleights of Mind – Sandra Blakeslee

Magicians have been exploiting the quirks of the human brain for centuries. Now neuroscience is beginning to explain how they do it.

In Sleights of Mind: What the Neuroscience of Magic Reveals About Our Everyday Deceptions, neuroscientists Stephen L. Macknik and Susana Martinez-Conde, writing with science journalist Sandra Blakeslee, explore what magic tricks can teach us about attention, perception, memory and decision-making. Working with some of the world’s leading magicians, the authors investigate why we fail to notice things that happen right in front of our eyes, how our brains fill in gaps and make assumptions, and how expectations shape what we think we see.

The book explains concepts such as change blindness, inattentional blindness, visual illusions, misdirection, memory distortion and the illusion of choice, using examples from classic tricks and the performances of famous magicians. It also shows how the same mental shortcuts that magicians exploit operate in everyday life, from advertising and sales techniques to politics and personal relationships.

Accessible and entertaining, the book combines scientific research with backstage stories from the world of magic, giving readers a fresh understanding of how their own minds work.

Sleights of Mind is a fascinating read for anyone interested in psychology, neuroscience, magic and the surprising ways in which our brains can be fooled.