Misdirection is sometimes defined “as the intentional deflection of attention for the purpose of disguise” (Sharpe, 1988, p. 47); as such, it would encompass anything that prevents you from noticing the secret method (i.e.,
the technique used to bring about the observed effect). It has also been suggested that misdirection is not simply about directing attention away from the cause of a magic effect, but toward
something interesting, which again prevents the spectator from noticing the method (Wonder, 1994).
Whilst some misdirection principles involve
manipulating what people attend to (and thus, what they see), “real misdirection deceives not only the eye of the spectator, but his mind as well” (Leech, 1960, p. 6), More precisely, successful misdirection might manipulate not only people's perceptions, but their memory for what happened, or their reasoning about how the effect was done. A distraction that prevents people from experiencing an effect—whether by
manipulating perception, memory, or reasoning—is clearly futile (Lamont and Wiseman, 1999). Misdirection is also ineffective if it allows people to see (or work out) the method, since a key aspect of magic is the witnessing of an event that is apparently impossible. If people become aware of the misdirection, the impossible becomes possible, and the magic disappears (Pareras, 2011).
