Toward a Social Psychology of Entertainment Magic (Conjuring)*

The dynamics of everyday social interactions can often be clarified by studying the social organization of unusual realms of activity. One such activity is conjuring–magic performed as entertainment. This article discusses various sociological and social psychological dimensions in the performance of magic. It focuses on the similarities between a magic act and the social interactions of everyday life. It also discusses the dialectic between magic reasoning and mundane reasoning–between the audience's expectations built from the organization of everyday life and the violations of expectations produced by the magician's construction of an alternate reality. A magic trick is described from the perspectives of both magician and spectator using such topics as the directional, concealment, and disattend channels of activity; breaking frames; bracketing; sex roles; expectations; perception and attention; and rationality. The article concludes with some brief suggestions for additional research topics and some implications for both a theoretical and an applied sociological social psychology.