魔術是怎么“騙”我們的？

文/By+Scott+Hillard+譯/宋怡秋

We all like magic and more importantly， we all like to think we can work out magic tricks if we really want to. But as it turns out， even a simple card trick utilizes neuroscientific principles to trick our brain in ways that we usually can't consciously control. So what exactly is wrong with our brain？ Well nothing really， but years of evolution has left it with traits that leave it wide open to be duped1） by magic. For example ...

我們都喜歡魔術，而且更重要的是，我們都樂于相信，只要我們真的愿意，就能破解魔術的奧秘。但結果證明，即便是很簡單的紙牌魔術也會運用一些神經科學的原理，使我們的大腦常常不由自主地受到愚弄。那么，我們的大腦究竟出了什么問題？唔，也沒啥問題，只是長期的進化讓我們的大腦形成了一些特性，為魔術的騙術花招大開方便之門。譬如以下這些……

Focus

Multitasking is a myth. The human brain simply wasn't designed to focus on two things at once and magicians take full advantage. Our attention is pulled to one thing in particular due to the "moving-spotlight" theory. In short， the theory says that our attention is like a spotlight， highlighting one thing while leaving what surrounds it in the dark. When an item or action is within the spotlight， the parts of the brain involved in processing it work more efficiently， but anything beyond the spotlight is barely processed at all， at least not by our conscious mind. This allows magicians to pull a sleight of hand2） right under our noses. As long as something else is drawing our spotlight， what happens beyond it， to our brain isn't happening at all.

注意的焦點

一心多用是種誤解，人類的大腦天生就不具備同時專注于兩件事情的功能，而魔術師則充分利用了這一點。按照“移動的聚光燈”理論，我們的注意力會聚焦在某一特定事物上。簡言之，這種理論認為人們的注意力就像聚光燈一樣，在照亮一個事物的同時會令其周圍的事物處在黑暗之中。當某個物體或行為處在注意中心時，參與處理這部分信息的那些大腦區域就會更加高效，而對于處于注意中心之外的事物，我們的大腦幾乎完全不予理睬，至少不會有意識地去處理。這就讓魔術師有機會在我們眼皮底下耍花招，因為只要有其他事物吸引了我們的注意力，那些在我們注意力之外發生的事情對我們的大腦而言就等同于根本沒有發生一樣。

Made Up Memories

The "misinformation effect" occurs when information we are given after an event alters our memory of it. For example， a magician asks you to choose a card from the left side of the deck3） and return it without telling him. Before the razzle-dazzle4） where he guesses your card he may say something like "Now you chose any card you wanted， correct？" And in the heat of the moment5） you will say you did. The truth is you were only given the option of the left side of the deck， but the ambiguous comments from the magician alters how you remember the trick， leaving you with a false memory， making the trick seem perhaps more incredible than it was.

編造記憶

當我們在事后獲得的信息改變我們對該事情的記憶時，就產生了“錯誤信息效應”。比如，魔術師要求你從一副牌的左側抽出一張，然后把牌放回去，不要告訴他牌面。在他變戲法猜出你選的是哪張牌之前，他可能會問類似“現在你選了你想要的任意一張牌，對不對？”這樣的問題，你會在一時激動之下不假思索地給出肯定的回答。而事實上，你的選擇范圍僅僅是那副牌的左邊一側，但魔術師說的那些模棱兩可的話改變了你對魔術過程的記憶，給你留下了錯誤的印象，從而令你覺得這個魔術可能更加神乎其神了。endprint

Free Will

When we "pick a card， any card" we are very rarely picking at random， no matter what it seems. It is usually the magician choosing for us， only without our knowledge. In many card tricks the card we apparently choose is "forced"—meaning the magician did something， mental or physical， to make us choose exactly what they wanted us to. But our brain will often overlook or deny this as an option， in favor of free choice. Our brain simply does not want to believe it was forced and will often omit facts that may indicate that it was， instead jumping fully into the false idea that all choices were all our own.

自由意志

當我們“選一張牌，隨便哪張”時，我們很少能真正隨意地去選，不論當時看起來是怎樣的。通常都是魔術師在替我們選，只不過我們被蒙在鼓里而已。在很多紙牌魔術中，表面上看似乎是我們自己選的那張牌其實是“強加”給我們的，也就是說，魔術師運用了某種心理手段或動了什么手腳，讓我們剛好選擇了他們希望我們選的那張牌。但我們的大腦常常忽視或否認這點，反而更愿意認為我們做出的是自主選擇。大腦就是不愿意相信自己是被動的，因此常常無視那些指明這一事實的證據，反而很快會完全陷入一切選擇都是自主決定的錯誤認識中。

Filling in the Blanks

The "woman sawed in half trick" is old enough that most people know the secret. The head we see in one end of the box doesn't belong to the legs we see at the other. But our brain insists and assumes it does， why？ Because our brain is a sucker6） for continuity. When it sees a head in rough alignment7） with a set of legs it uses past experience to fill in the blank and tell us that obviously a torso8） exists between those two body parts. In many magic tricks an object is partially covered， and our brain uses what it can see to continue the image and fill in the blank. Of course that is exactly what the magician wants.

填補空白

“大鋸活人”是個老節目，大多數人都知曉其奧妙所在。我們在箱子一端看見的頭和在箱子另一端看見的腿不屬于同一人，可我們的大腦卻堅持認為它們是同一人的，這是為什么呢？因為我們的大腦特別鐘愛連續性。當我們看見一個頭和兩條腿大致成一條直線時，大腦就會根據過去的經驗填補中間的空白部分，告訴我們這二者之間顯然有軀干相連。許多魔術在表演中會將某件物品的一部分遮擋起來，而我們的大腦會根據實際看到的那部分對畫面加以補充，填補空白。當然，這樣就正中了魔術師的下懷。

Change

Quick， look out the window. What did you see？ Now look again， has anything changed？ If the first time all you saw was your backyard and the second time there was a tiger， well you're probably going to notice. But what if that bird perched in the tree moved slightly？ What if a plant had moved in the wind？ Our brains are susceptible9） to something called "change-blindness"， basically meaning that it's actually quite bad at immediately detecting small changes. It's not necessarily that we don't see them， but more that our brains have trained themselves not to worry about changes that won't greatly affect us. As a result， if we aren't very specifically focusing on something we'll rarely register10） it consciously. Obviously magicians can utilize this to the extreme； we never notice small changes in what's going on until the magician directs our focus to it.endprint

變化

快看窗外。看見什么了？再看一眼，有什么變化嗎？如果第一次你只看見了自家后院，而第二次卻看見院子里有只老虎，那么你很可能會察覺到這種變化。但如果只是樹上的那只鳥稍微動了動呢？如果只是某棵植物隨風擺動了一下呢？我們的大腦容易出現一種叫做“變化盲視”的狀況，主要是指大腦實際上很不善于立刻發現那些細微的變化。這未必是由于我們沒看見這些變化，而更多的是因為大腦早已訓練自己不去顧慮那些對我們影響不大的變化。因此，若我們不是去特別留意某事，我們就很少會有意識地注意到這件事情。顯然，魔術師可以將這一點利用到極致：我們從來不會注意到眼前發生的微小變化，直到魔術師將我們的注意力引向那里，我們才會發覺。

Your Brain Falls for11） Charm

Many magicians use humor in their acts in an attempt to charm their audience into submission. But this charm and charisma12） is actually having a chemical effect on your brain. It's possible that the simple act of laughing at the magician's terrible puns13） releases oxytocin14）， the bonding15） hormone， which makes acts of cooperation and social interaction feel good. Oxytocin release means you are less likely to be critical of the tricks you're watching and even more likely to miss sleights of hand as your attention will be drawn to the magician's face. So everything， even the terrible puns are part of the trick.

大腦會為魅力所欺騙

很多魔術師都會在表演中融入一些幽默元素，以期俘獲觀眾的心。但他們在表演中散發的這種魅力實際上能夠令觀眾的大腦產生化學反應。即使是因魔術師所講的蹩腳俏皮話而笑起來這種簡單行為也可能會令你釋放出催產素——這是一種有助于形成親密關系的激素，能使人與人合作或交往時感到愉快。釋放催產素意味著你在觀看魔術表演時可能不會很苛刻，而且，由于你的注意力被魔術師的臉所吸引，你甚至可能會沒看見他手上的小動作。因此，所有的一切，包括那糟糕的俏皮話，都是魔術的一部分。

Seeing and Feeling Too Long

You've probably seen any number of Internet illusions where you stare at a black image then stare at a white wall to find the image still exists in your vision. That's called an after image and it's really your brain seeing something for a short time after it's gone. A magician can use this when switching an item from hand to hand； to your brain a coin may appear to be in one hand slightly longer than it was due to an after image， which gives the magician a fraction of a second longer to make the switch. A magician might even use an after image to remove your watch. Squeezing your wrist can leave an after image feeling， leading your brain to believe your watch is still there even after it has been expertly removed.

視覺和觸覺殘留

你也許已經在網上看過許多視錯覺圖片了，就是先盯著一張黑色的圖像看一會兒，然后再盯著白墻，此時就會發現眼前仍殘留著剛才的圖像。這種現象被稱作“殘留影像”，背后的真相是物體消失后，其形象仍短暫留存在我們的大腦中。魔術師把一個道具在兩手之間交換時就可以利用這個原理。由于殘留影像的緣故，在你的大腦看來，硬幣貌似在魔術師的一只手上停留的時間比它實際停留的時間略長一點，這就給了魔術師一瞬間把東西換手。魔術師甚至能夠利用殘留影像現象把你的手表摘走。手表對手腕的擠壓會給你造成一種殘留的觸感，使你的大腦相信手表仍在原處，卻不知它已經被魔術師的巧手摘走了。

1. dupe [dju?p] vt. 欺騙，詐騙，愚弄

2. sleight of hand： 戲法；把戲，花招

3. deck [dek] n. <主美>一副紙牌

4. razzle-dazzle [?r?zl ?d?zl] n. 騙人花招

5. in the heat of the moment： 因激動（或生氣）而不經思考地（說出）

6. sucker [?s?k?（r）] n. <口>容易入迷的人；非常喜歡……的人

7. alignment [??la?nm?nt] n. 成一直線

8. torso [?t??s??] n. （人體的）軀干

9. susceptible [s??sept?bl] adj. 易受影響的（to）

10. register [?red??st?（r）] vt. <口>意識到，注意到；使留下印象，記住

11. fall for： <俚>受……的騙，上……的當

12. charisma [k??r?zm?] n. 神秘的個人魅力

13. pun [p?n] n. 雙關詼諧語，雙關語

14. oxytocin [??ks??t??s?n] n.【生化】催產素，一種哺乳動物激素，由大腦分泌。當一個人的催產素水平升高時，這個人即便是對完全陌生的人也會變得更加慷慨，更有愛心，因此催產素又被稱為愛情激素或道德分子。

15. bonding [?b?nd??] n. （尤指因經常交往所致的）親密關系形成（如母子、母女之間）endprint