Is It ‘Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic’? Health, Confidence And Teaching Tricks

Okay, colour-changing-card-me confused about the combination of a new paper and a much older report on the benefits of magic tricks for children!

Questioning something that even I find rather palatable upon first reading isn’t unusual, particularly if it involves education claims. I guess I like to question even my own fervent hope that an introduction to sleight-of-hand and an understanding of ‘why illusions work’ will naturally benefit educational and health outcomes.

Is such a thing really a science lesson? Is it really a critical thinking lesson? Where do we find support for such claims? Perhaps I’ve just had too many promises made to me as a teacher in regards to activities or videos being cure-alls or quick-solutions – to everything from literacy levels to an understanding of science and critical thinking concepts, to even engagement in classes. Maybe it’s more of a skeptical-outlook after having Jamy Ian Swiss admit to being that ‘honest liar’ so often!

I mean, just look at what Teller does here, showing his skills! Wouldn’t it be wonderful to think that attending classes by the likes of him could make young people smarter, more savvy, more self-assured and boost self-esteem? Particularly if they’re of ill-health?

But, as always, it’s most likely going to take more than that, especially when you’re drawing on the scientific evidence that is replicable, rather than the hits on a video, even if it is the fantastic Teller.

Thanks to the ever-topical and savvy Heidi Anderson, via her blog ‘Fat One in The Middle’, she has also begun an inadvertent (yet still highly relevant) discussion on communication of science concepts via  magic, in the comments of her blog-post ‘But, But, But . . . Surely YOU Support Boobquake!!! Right??‘ -  as discussed by science communicator ‘TribalScientist’:

I’m honestly baffled as to how Wiseman’s card tricks [referring to the YouTube video of The Colour-Changing Card Trick] can be compared with Boobquake.

The goal of Wiseman’s card trick clips were (I assume) to demonstrate in practical terms some simple tricks of psychology. They were popular because the self-evident results were fascinating and the format was useful for people to access. You’re equating the value of the opinion of a sole psychologist who claimed this was dumbing down psychology with equivalent criticisms here of a stunt that aims to promote a preformed conclusion – the tools themselves aren’t at all comparable.

…It is possible that more people will feel less intimidated by the concept of science because it’s associated with boobs. I’d hate to break it to you all, but this isn’t a big problem in the world. It’s been known for a while that the majority of people ‘like’ the concept of science. What is an issue is the level science literacy and ability to judge worthwhile science from flippant, dodgy or poorly conducted science. And it is just possible that stunts like Boobquake don’t really help in that regard.

It’s interesting to note that even though a recent article in the Skeptical Inquirer seemed to equate popularity of a video as being equal to ‘fantastic educational resources’ - there’s a lot not being proven by same cheering skeptics about the efficacy of this, that I’ve found?

Of course, as a blog-post that EbertChicago ‘Twittered’ recently shows, you’re hardly going to find the dying art of cigarette magic being passed around as a learning tool to the kids, either! It reminded me of another study, reported on Radio National two years ago, that I still keep on my iPod.

“Magic helps children’s confidence – Science Show – 27-September-2008” – in this episode, Professor Richard Wiseman discussed a pilot study – you can read the transcript for yourself:

Robyn Williams: You took 60 kids, 30 of both groups. What was the point?

Richard Wiseman: We were comparing the changes in self-esteem and confidence and social abilities learning magic tricks and a kind of standard self-esteem lesson they would receive in British schools. What we could see is that taking them to magic school, teaching them these tricks, getting them to perform for their friends and family was actually a very effective way…in fact more effective than a standard lesson enhancing self-esteem… I think there’s all sorts of things we can do. First of all a larger number of children, we can take our measures over a longer period of time, but also roll this out across schools and say to teachers that there’s a really interesting idea here, let’s take kids to magic school.

The British Science Association has more detail on exactly which tricks were used (in fact, it even details which ‘Three quick and simple tricks that will help boost self-esteem’). Of course, a few media reports covered the pilot study as if it was a foregone conclusion. Although then I found that the sample-size kept changing, from the radio-interview’s 60 to “50 pupils aged between 10 and 12 at two schools in Hertfordshire.”

As a pilot study? Very interesting. But some of the questions I had were also reflected in this new paper I found today that is on a not-too-dissimilar topic – “Magic as a Thereputic Intervention to Promote Coping in Hospitalised Pediatric Patients“.

‘Magic as a therapeutic intervention is used in an innovative, hospital-based program to address the psychosocial issues children and adolescents often experience as a result of illness and hospitalisation. A child life specialist and a magician with an MBA collaborated… 1) magicians using interactive, close-up magic and humor as a technique to promote socialisation, enhance self-esteem, and increase opportunities for choice and control and 2) magicians providing the personal instruction and materials that enabel chronically ill and long-term patients to learn and perform magic to promote a sense of empowerment and feeling of mastery.

While there is a lot of really enthusiastic anecdotal evidence being shown in Hart and Walton’s paper, there’s also a very strong case (particularly after looking up the examples of the use of magic in therapeutic cases via non-peer reviewed papers mentioned in the bibilography) for more research on the matter. The implications for further research at the end are encouraging for those who want to know whether practitioners are putting their ‘rabbits where their hats are’:

‘Despite the existing anecdotal and tangential evidence that exists supporting the theraputic benefits of magic, much more quantitative and qualitative evidence is needed. Valid and reliable measurement tools must be developed to quantify the subjective quality of magic. Similarly, the role of humor in the theraputic magic interaction… the potential benefits of learning magic tricks related to self-esteem and locus of control could also prove to be an important area of exploration.’

Of course, the conclusion also mentions the ‘dwindling financial resources’ for such projects and perhaps it will be a matter of such labor-intensive ventures being sidelined unless there is more support for the claims. This isn’t unusual for a great many educational and health-based practices, however, that have popular support but are struggling to get researchers, venues, facilities and funding to find whether or not they really do live up to the promises made.

However, considering the interaction between magic practitioners and keen skeptics out there ( many of whom are indeed invested in finding good research that supports such evidence-based claims), I’d be very happy to learn of more investigations that, as the paper says too, are scientifically rigorous.

Select Bibliography:

Hart R, & Walton M (2010). Magic as a therapeutic intervention to promote coping in hospitalized pediatric patients. Pediatric nursing, 36 (1) PMID: 20361440

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