Does Magic Pollute Science?

Following yesterdays article discussing mindreading tricks from a psychological angle Dr Vaughn Bell has gone on to discuss an email he received from a Mind Hacks reader called Stefano who suggests:

“…stage magicians that use psychological language actually pollute the public’s understanding of science”

Stefano goes on to criticise Derren Brown stating:

“As a psychologist, I have to say I dislike the new sort of mentalism that we’re seeing nowadays. Derren Brown (an incredibly talented performer, as you said) tries to portray his show as something more than old-fashioned magic by introducing psychological terms and studies, somewhat erratically. I understand that his use of scientific terminology might be part of the misdirection, but it really makes me cringe to see he perform ridiculous feats and justify it by citing things like the Milgram study, concentration abilities or persuasion techniques. Almost every time he mentions a psychological concept, he either misrepresents it or uses it to explain absurd stuff that he did with stooges or simply old magic tricks.”

The full article can be found here.

Technorati: Magic derren brown, milgram study, vaughn bell