| Abstract |
The purpose of this project was to investigate whether people experience magic in the same way and how factors such as age, gender, mindfulness, personality, and sport participation affect attention and susceptibility to magic tricks. Experiments were conducted with members of the school community, including students aged 8–17 and teachers. Participants viewed three magic videos designed to test visual attention, cognitive processing under pressure and awareness of background changes. I tested mindfulness, sport, and the Big Five personality traits, age and gender.
Data were collected from multiple groups, and analysis using chi-square tests and Mann–Whitney U tests examined associations between these variables and participants’ responses to the tricks. The results showed statistically significant associations between age and noticing changes in the Three-cup Monte video, and between age and naming Denmark in the maths trick. Higher conscientiousness was linked to giving the prototypical answers “elephant” and “grey.” Sport participation was also significantly associated with giving fewer prototypical answers, suggesting that post exercise effects may influence cognitive processing. Gender and mindfulness did not show significant associations, though limited sample sizes may have affected these outcomes.
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