James Howells

9-15-2021
CW R4A Fall 2021 /Beautiful Liars

I.6 - 3+pg Full Draft

Titles
The Deceiving truth
Deceiving our mind
The art of deception
When and how do we get deceived?
Deception is everywhere

More quotes
More evidence analyzing

We see deception and get fooled by magic tricks but the same techniques and principles are
applied in many other activities such as sports and daily life.

Why do we get deceived so easily?

We as a culture seem to desire to perceive circumstances, which enable us to hope and
believe in something that will make our lives better in the long run.
● We want to see impossible stuff be done ““Magicians sometimes talk about the moment
right after they pull off a trick, before the rational mind sets in, and the viewer is
transported, briefly, out of reality. “You make them for a few seconds believe you’re doing
the impossible. And for me, for a magician, you see that look on their face — ” Torre
paused. “I can’t equate it to anything else.” (In Prison, Learning Magic by Mail NYT
article)
● Distracted/ taken away from reality “ “it made sense, Jay came to realize, that people
would turn to magic in moments of despair and isolation” ((In Prison, Learning Magic by
Mail NYT article)
● Desperate for answers, psychics and televangelists make money and take advantage of
susceptible, hopeful, or desperate people. Oliver and Randi videos

When do we want to be fooled?

Us as humans rarely ever want to get fooled, but at times we don’t mind getting fooled.
We wouldn’t mind getting fooled for entertainment purposes because we get adrenaline and
excitement of the unknown and unpredictability. For example most of us watch sports and most
of us who watch football have heard the saying “Any given Sunday” which means you can’t
predict who’s going to win the game. We like watching sports because we like the
competitiveness and the unpredictability of it. It’s like a rollercoaster wanting to see players
pull off impossible comebacks or plays. These are the most exciting things in sports, it relates to
people wanting to be fooled in magic because in magic we want to see impossible tricks be
pulled off. The unpredictability of sports gives us wonder which relates to magic according to
Kuhn, “The second involves the nature of those effects that magic ​is uniquely suited for, such
as the sense of wonder induced by an apparently impossible event.” (Kuhn pg.1-2). Kuhn
argues that wonder is caused by impossible events, but he is not the only who thinks that, In the
In Prison, Learning Magic by Mail NYT article, Torre states ““Magicians sometimes talk about
the moment right after they pull off a trick, before the rational mind sets in, and the viewer is
transported, briefly, out of reality. “You make them for a few seconds believe you’re doing the
impossible. And for me, for a magician, you see that look on their face — ” Torre paused. “I can’t
equate it to anything else.” Us humans like to watch impossible events happen whether it be
watching sports or watching magic because they cause us to think and wonder.

● Sports
● Adrenaline and excitement of unpredictability, thrill, uncertainty, and unknown
competitiveness of sports. It’s like a rollercoaster wanting to see players pull off
impossible comebacks or plays, these are the most exciting things in sports, it relates to
people wanting to be fooled in magic because in magic we want to see impossible tricks
be pulled off.
● Wonder, “The second involves the nature of those effects that magic ​is uniquely suited
for, such as the sense of wonder induced by an apparently impossible event.” (Kuhn
pg.1-2).
● No one can predict what will happen all the time in sports.
● A lot of different outcomes can happen.
● Being fooled in gambling.
● Everyone is having a good time and socializing.
● Gambling on sports can be exciting.
● If you bet on sports it creates an environment that makes you care and want to watch
teams that you bet on more intensively; you have skin in the game.
● We like competition in sports like baseball, basketball, and football which has an element
of unpredictability and excitement.
● It’s probable to be fooled by a favorite player or team, when you want to believe that your
favorite player or team is good but in reality they’re not.
● Another scenario is when the player or team looks very good on paper, but in actuality
ends up being a “bust” and a disappointment.
● What if

When do we dislike being fooled?

We do not like to get fooled when there are actual adverse impacts that become serious
and are realized. For example, we would dislike getting fooled if someone pickpocketed you or
robbed you of all your money. In sports we do not like to get fooled if we can adversely affect
the team. For example, in football if a cornerback is fooled by a play action pass and the
opposing team throws an easy touchdown that won them the game. That player is going to feel
terrible that he let down the team. We do not like to get fooled when stakes are high. In the
Oliver and Randi videos televangelists and psychics fooled and took advantage of desperate
people by deceiving their clients that they could do impossible stuff like talk to the dead or cure
their cancer. They used techniques used by magicians.

● When the actual adverse impacts become serious and are realized. For example, we
would dislike getting fooled if someone pickpocketed you or robbed you of all your
money.
● Betting all your money and losing all of it.
● Being lied when there are effects to your health as indicated in the Oliver televangelist
video that supported helping to fight off cancer
● Televangelists make you believe you need to donate.
● Psychics that deceit and fool you into believing they can talk to the dead and predict the
future.
● Oliver and Randi videos that characterize deception and fooling of televangelist and
psychics, respectively.
● We should ask at what point can being fooled or deceived harm you.
● Magic as crime Apollo Roberts ““If you think about it, magic itself has many of the
hallmarks of criminal activity: You lie, you cheat, you try not to get caught—but it’s on a
stage, it has a proscenium around it”(A Pickpocket’s Tale - The New Yorker pg.2)

Deception in sports
● Trick plays in football
● Trick plays on offense
○ Play Action pass
○ Flea-flicker
○ Hook and ladder
○ Counters
○ Fake field goals
○ Philly Special
○ misdirection
● Deceptive plays on defense
○ Fake blitz
○ Stunts/Twist
○ Bluff coverages
● Special team trick plays
○ Onside kick
○ Fake punt
● Deception in baseball
○ Base Stealing
○ Signs for the pitcher
○ Pick offs
 ○ Back door throw from catcher to a base runner
○ Pitcher fooling a batter with a pitch
● Superstitions in sports
● Lies we tell ourselves

Deception in everyday life

● Advertisement and commercials deceptive
● make it more appealing so you can buy it
● Homeless dogs commercials that play on emotions.
● All other activities that play on your emotions
● Social media
● Randi Homeopathic pills making think they are real medicine
● Televangelists and psychics use your emotions to their advantage.
● Magicians manipulate your choices make you believe you have a free choice but in
reality
● Grocery stores manipulate you into buying stuff you don’t need

Techniques that magicians use

● Tellers seven laws of magic
○ 1. Exploit pattern recognition.
○ 2. Make the secret a lot more trouble than the trick seems worth.
○ 3. It’s hard to think critically if you’re laughing.
○ 4. Keep the trickery outside the frame.
○ 5. To fool the mind, combine at least two tricks.
○ 6. Nothing fools you better than the lie you tell yourself.
○ 7. If you are given a choice, you believe you have acted freely.
● Misdirection is used by magicians and pickpockets such as Apollo Roberts to get us to
look a way so we are blinded from the trick
● Inattentional blindness
● Apollo Roberts and magicians using these techniques to fool people
● Choice blindness
● Science of magic documentary
● “The success of this approach relied on the conviction of the participants that the object
could not have changed” (A Framework for Using Magic to Study the Mind, pg.2).

Magicians use various techniques to fool us. The magician Teller tells us the secret of magic in
“Teller’s seven laws of magic”, specifically law number 4 “Keep the trickery outside the frame” is
a common law that many magicians and pickpocketer’s use. This is basically misdirection to
make us look away and blinded from the trick. There is misdirection in football such as when
receivers go in motion causing the defense to take their eyes off the ball. Another one of
Teller’s laws that relates to sports is Teller’s 1 law “Exploit pattern recognition”, for example in
baseball if a pitcher struck out the previous 2 batters with just fastballs and your in a 0-2 count,
due to the pattern you would expect a fastball but the pitcher surprised you and threw you a
curveball and struck you out. Another example in sports is if a football team lines up in a run
heavy formation with no wide receivers and then throws it catching the other team off guard
because the pattern and usual outcome of that formation is a running play. Many methods and
techniques used by magicians are also used in sports.