A magical experience or a puzzle: how do people watch conjuring tricks?

Conjuring tricks often contain two components: The effect (an apparently impossible happening) and the method (the secret of the trick). Prior scales have assessed individuals’ general liking for magic, but not examined their interest in the effect and method. This paper validates a new scale (Method-Effect Scale; MES) measuring people’s preference for these two components and examines its relationship with several variables including a general liking for magic, wonder, pseudoscientific beliefs and thinking style. Adult participants ( N = 922) completed an online survey containing the MES, Loathing of Legerdemain Scale, Capacity for Wonder Scale (CFW), Inventory of Epistemically Unwarranted Beliefs Scale (EUB), Rational Experiential Inventory (REI), and demographic questions. An exploratory factor analysis revealed that the MES had two distinct factors (Effect and Method) and strong internal reliability (overall α = .83: method α = .86: effect α = .77). Significant positive correlations emerged between both MES subscales, the CFW subscales, and the EUB scientific knowledge subscale. The MES Method subscale was positively correlated with the REI’s Need for Cognition and Faith in Intuition subscales, and negatively associated with some EUB subscales (conspiracy theory, religion, and health). The MES Effect subscale was positively associated with the EUB ghost subscale and negatively correlated with the conspiracy theory subscale. These results suggest that the MES is a valid and reliable measure, and we discuss how this new measure can help researchers obtain a more fine-grained insight into participant’s perception of magic, and how magicians can employ it to improve their performances.