Archives

It’s flu season. I’ve noticed – and maybe you have too – how people’s behavior changes when they’re afraid of getting sick. They shake fewer hands. No hugs. They keep their distance. It makes sense. After all, we’ve survived as a species to avoid disease. Think of the Black Plague, which killed 30 to 60 percent of Europe’s population in the 14th century, or the fictional Motaba virus of the 1995 action thriller Outbreak.

A group of biologists see our germ-o-phobia as a key to understanding cultural differences, including why some cultures are ruder than others, even why religious diversity fluorishes in places more prone to disease. To break the theory down for us is Corey Fincher, biologist at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, and one of the authors of several high-profile papers on how disease shapes who we are and how we behave.

Smithsonian: The Culture of Being Rude

The Daily Mail: Religion 'may have helped halt spread of disease', says controversial scientific report

(Photo by pinkangelbabe via Flickr/Creative Commons)

I hate to be the one to break it to you, but that disappearing elephant thing is a trick. And all those lovely magicians’ assistant sawed in half and then put back together, sources now reveal that those sequined ladies weren’t cut in two after all! From Harry Houdini to Penn and Teller, the illusionist manipulates our attention and exploits the human tendency to get distracted while pulling a fast one.

It turns out that neuroscientists can learn a lot about how our brains work by studying the way magicians trick us. The basic trick of the magician: use some sort of gimmick to mask the real action while making something appear to change or dematerialize. It turns out that magicians not only use "visual illusions," but also something called "cognitive illusions." For example, the video below originated from two Harvard researchers. The goal is for viewers to count how many times a team of basketball players pass a ball around:

It’s an example of "covert blindness" called "inattentional blindness". But there's another kind of "covert blindness" called "change blindness." Here's a video example, a "color changing card trick":

Magicians rely on misdirection – get the audience to focus their eyes somewhere else while the magician tricks them with slight of hand. But studies show that it doesn't matter where the audience is looking – you can still trick the eye, even if it stays focused on the action. How? Two investigators measured the eye movements of observers while scientist/magician made a cigarette "disappear" by dropping it below a table. The results were clear: it made no difference where they were looking.

Some scientists even hope that investigating the techniques of magic could lead to new diagnostics and treatments for patients suffering from attention deficit disorders, Alzheimer's disease, or brain trauma.

These studies also reveal a lot about the power of expectation in the human brain. More specifically, our desire to apply causation to actions unrelated to one another. A magician may pour water on a ball, then the ball disappears. We assume it's because of the water, but of course it's not.

Today, the magic of radio brings us back to an earlier conversation with John Rennie, former editor-in-chief of Scientific American magazine, where you can find the article "Magic and the Brain."

(Photo by Andres Pinto Sánchez)