Forcing the issue: Little psychological influence in a magician's paradigm

Abstract

Forcing is usually described as the effect in which stage magicians covertly influence decisions made by spectators. The phenomenon has been subject to a number of recent articles and is typically placed within the context of social influence, priming, decision making, awareness, free will, and the science of magic. In the present paper I will argue that forcing researchers, when framing and describing the phenomenon, have exaggerated what magicians typically achieve with the technique. Specifically, the magician is said to influence and manipulate the spectator's decision when in fact the vast majority of forces do not include any such influence. The consequence of this misrepresentation is that psychologists will be led to believe that the forcing phenomenon has more to contribute to priming and the psychology of influence than it actually does.

Keywords: Decision making; Forcing; Priming; Science of magic; Social influence.