Illusionist Teller from Penn and Teller recently revealed seven principles that magicians use to manipulate you. Here are three of them:

• “It’s hard to think critically if you’re laughing” – follow up an amazing trick with a joke so that the viewer doesn’t have time to analyze the deception.
• “Nothing fools you better than the lie you tell yourself” – let your audience feel as if they had the opportunity to use their own intellect to figure out what you’re doing.
• “Make the secret a lot more trouble than the trick seems worth” – if there’s a conceivable explanation for how you performed your trick, but that explanation suggests you did a prohibitive amount of work, then do the work, people will assume it’s a trick.

To read the rest of the seven, as well as an example of a trick that integrates all of the principles outlined, click here.

Source: Smithsonian

Via: The Boston Globe