魔术是怎么“骗”我们的？

时间：2024-06-03

文/By+Scott+Hillard+译/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 ...

我们都喜欢魔术，而且更重要的是，我们都乐于相信，只要我们真的愿意，就能破解魔术的奥秘。但结果证明，即便是很简单的纸牌魔术也会运用一些神经科学的原理，使我们的大脑常常不由自主地受到愚弄。那么，我们的大脑究竟出了什么问题？唔，也没啥问题，只是长期的进化让我们的大脑形成了一些特性，为魔术的骗术花招大开方便之门。譬如以下这些……

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.

注意的焦点

一心多用是种误解，人类的大脑天生就不具备同时专注于两件事情的功能，而魔术师则充分利用了这一点。按照“移动的聚光灯”理论，我们的注意力会聚焦在某一特定事物上。简言之，这种理论认为人们的注意力就像聚光灯一样，在照亮一个事物的同时会令其周围的事物处在黑暗之中。当某个物体或行为处在注意中心时，参与处理这部分信息的那些大脑区域就会更加高效，而对于处于注意中心之外的事物，我们的大脑几乎完全不予理睬，至少不会有意识地去处理。这就让魔术师有机会在我们眼皮底下耍花招，因为只要有其他事物吸引了我们的注意力，那些在我们注意力之外发生的事情对我们的大脑而言就等同于根本没有发生一样。

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.

编造记忆

当我们在事后获得的信息改变我们对该事情的记忆时，就产生了“错误信息效应”。比如，魔术师要求你从一副牌的左侧抽出一张，然后把牌放回去，不要告诉他牌面。在他变戏法猜出你选的是哪张牌之前，他可能会问类似“现在你选了你想要的任意一张牌，对不对？”这样的问题，你会在一时激动之下不假思索地给出肯定的回答。而事实上，你的选择范围仅仅是那副牌的左边一侧，但魔术师说的那些模棱两可的话改变了你对魔术过程的记忆，给你留下了错误的印象，从而令你觉得这个魔术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

当我们“选一张牌，随便哪张”时，我们很少能真正随意地去选，不论当时看起来是怎样的。通常都是魔术师在替我们选，只不过我们被蒙在鼓里而已。在很多纸牌魔术中，表面上看似乎是我们自己选的那张牌其实是“强加”给我们的，也就是说，魔术师运用了某种心理手段或动了什么手脚，让我们刚好选择了他们希望我们选的那张牌。但我们的大脑常常忽视或否认这点，反而更愿意认为我们做出的是自主选择。大脑就是不愿意相信自己是被动的，因此常常无视那些指明这一事实的证据，反而很快会完全陷入一切选择都是自主决定的错误认识中。

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.

填补空白

“大锯活人”是个老节目，大多数人都知晓其奥妙所在。我们在箱子一端看见的头和在箱子另一端看见的腿不属于同一人，可我们的大脑却坚持认为它们是同一人的，这是为什么呢？因为我们的大脑特别钟爱连续性。当我们看见一个头和两条腿大致成一条直线时，大脑就会根据过去的经验填补中间的空白部分，告诉我们这二者之间显然有躯干相连。许多魔术在表演中会将某件物品的一部分遮挡起来，而我们的大脑会根据实际看到的那部分对画面加以补充，填补空白。当然，这样就正中了魔术师的下怀。

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

变化

快看窗外。看见什么了？再看一眼，有什么变化吗？如果第一次你只看见了自家后院，而第二次却看见院子里有只老虎，那么你很可能会察觉到这种变化。但如果只是树上的那只鸟稍微动了动呢？如果只是某棵植物随风摆动了一下呢？我们的大脑容易出现一种叫做“变化盲视”的状况，主要是指大脑实际上很不善于立刻发现那些细微的变化。这未必是由于我们没看见这些变化，而更多的是因为大脑早已训练自己不去顾虑那些对我们影响不大的变化。因此，若我们不是去特别留意某事，我们就很少会有意识地注意到这件事情。显然，魔术师可以将这一点利用到极致：我们从来不会注意到眼前发生的微小变化，直到魔术师将我们的注意力引向那里，我们才会发觉。

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.

大脑会为魅力所欺骗

很多魔术师都会在表演中融入一些幽默元素，以期俘获观众的心。但他们在表演中散发的这种魅力实际上能够令观众的大脑产生化学反应。即使是因魔术师所讲的蹩脚俏皮话而笑起来这种简单行为也可能会令你释放出催产素——这是一种有助于形成亲密关系的激素，能使人与人合作或交往时感到愉快。释放催产素意味着你在观看魔术表演时可能不会很苛刻，而且，由于你的注意力被魔术师的脸所吸引，你甚至可能会没看见他手上的小动作。因此，所有的一切，包括那糟糕的俏皮话，都是魔术的一部分。

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.

视觉和触觉残留

你也许已经在网上看过许多视错觉图片了，就是先盯着一张黑色的图像看一会儿，然后再盯着白墙，此时就会发现眼前仍残留着刚才的图像。这种现象被称作“残留影像”，背后的真相是物体消失后，其形象仍短暂留存在我们的大脑中。魔术师把一个道具在两手之间交换时就可以利用这个原理。由于残留影像的缘故，在你的大脑看来，硬币貌似在魔术师的一只手上停留的时间比它实际停留的时间略长一点，这就给了魔术师一瞬间把东西换手。魔术师甚至能够利用残留影像现象把你的手表摘走。手表对手腕的挤压会给你造成一种残留的触感，使你的大脑相信手表仍在原处，却不知它已经被魔术师的巧手摘走了。

1. dupe [dju?p] vt. 欺骗，诈骗，愚弄

2. sleight of hand：戏法；把戏，花招

3. deck [dek] n. <主美>一副纸牌

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

5. in the heat of the moment：因激动（或生气）而不经思考地（说出）

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

7. alignment [??la?nm?nt] n. 成一直线

8. torso [?t??s??] n. （人体的）躯干

9. susceptible [s??sept?bl] adj. 易受影响的（to）

10. register [?red??st?（r）] vt. <口>意识到，注意到；使留下印象，记住

11. fall for： <俚>受……的骗，上……的当

12. charisma [k??r?zm?] n. 神秘的个人魅力