Wiseman was born and raised in Luton. His mother a seamstress and his father an engineer, he learned his trade as a teenage magician working the crowds in Covent Garden.[6]
At 18 he continued as a street performer and went to University College London to study psychology, partly because it "was right around the corner". He shared accommodation as a student with Adrian Owen, later also to become a psychologist. In his years as a street performer he learned how to adapt or get out of what you are doing because "Sometimes you would start your act and after five minutes there was no audience." He moved to Edinburgh where he obtained his PhD in Psychology from the University of Edinburgh for research supervised by Robert L. Morris.[1]
Career and research
After completing his PhD he became Britain's first professor in the public understanding of psychology at the University of Hertfordshire.[6]
In his early years at the University of Hertfordshire, Wiseman partnered with Simon Singh on a BBC segment about lying for the National Science Week. The segment spanned TV, radio and print and featured a "politician making a statement, and letting the public vote on whether they thought this figure was telling the truth in each medium." It was the first time that Wiseman and Singh met. From the beginning, the two got along well and on Singh's idea, ended up creating a show together called Theatre of Science. The show aimed to deliver science to the audience in an entertaining manner. Wiseman describes how one stunt involved standing in a cage between two Tesla coils while lightning struck the cage. Wiseman ended up writing The Luck Factor in part due to Singh as well. With the success of Singh's book, Fermat's Last Theorem, Singh introduced Wiseman to his agent and encouraged him to write a similar book in the psychology arena, which led to The Luck Factor.[7]
Psychological research
Wiseman critically examines and frequent debunks unusual phenomena, including reports of paranormalphenomena. He is a fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI).[8] His research has been published in numerous academic journals, reported at various conferences,[9] and featured on television.[10]
Wiseman has studied the principles of good and bad luck, publishing the results in the self-help book The Luck Factor. He showed that both good and bad luck result from measurable habits; for example, lucky people, by expecting good luck, might expend more effort in their endeavours, resulting in more success, reinforcing their belief in good luck. Lucky people are outgoing and observant and therefore have many more chance encounters than unlucky people, each of which could bring a lucky opportunity. Moreover, lucky people are more likely to look on the bright side of 'bad' encounters. In a mental exercise describing being shot during a bank robbery, lucky people considered themselves lucky not to have been killed while unlucky people considered themselves unlucky to have been shot.[11]
Public engagement
Much of Wiseman's work tends to be oblique, as he prefers to make people go outside, discuss, research and think about the implications of his work rather than trying to convey his points in a 45-minute talk. So instead of talking directly about eyewitness testimony in law he would set something up that looked like it, something like the colour changing card trick.[12] In this mind set he has presented keynote addresses to organisations around the world and in well known forums and congresses like the Swiss Economic Forum and ESOMAR Congress.[12][13] Much of this work has involved helping organisation become more successful by embracing the lucky mind-set.
In 2001 Wiseman led LaughLab, an international experiment to find the world's funniest joke.[14] The winning joke described a caller to emergency services who shoots his friend who has collapsed to comply with the instruction "First, let's make sure he's dead".[14] The experiment also explored regional and cultural variations in humour. These public psychology experiments – such as enlisting people to name, and rate, their favourite gags in the search for the world's funniest jokes – have drawn hundreds of thousands of participants and plenty of press.
In 2011, Wiseman wrote the first section of a collaborative story at Libboo in an attempt to produce a full-length novel in two months. The final result of this experiment, was a novel called, Paradox: The Curious Life, and Mysterious Death, of Mr Joseph Wheeler.[15]
In 2013 Richard Wiseman became the first guest curator at Edinburgh's International Science Festival.[6] He participated in the festival with "Richard Wiseman's Beginners Guide to... Climate Change".[16] In 2014 he does a repeat of his 'Beginners Guide to' but this time with 3 different talks:
"Richard Wiseman's Beginners Guide to... Fermat's Last Theorem" with writer and broadcaster Simon Singh.[17]
"Richard Wiseman's Beginners Guide to... the Earth" with earth scientist and broadcaster Hermione Cockburn (BBC).[19]
Wiseman has also become a content creator on YouTube after uploading a video of the colour changing card trick[20] in 2007 that has 6. 5 million views as of April 2020. He is best known for his "Bets You Will Always Win" series, which has amassed over 60 million views throughout 10 videos. On 7 January 2014, Wiseman uploaded a video to a new channel called "59 Seconds"[21] in promotion of his book of the same name.
The Edinburgh Secret Society organises events for those of a curious disposition. These include verbal, theatrical and experimental presentations intended to inform, entertain and bewilder. This group, as the name states, tends to be low key and has appeared in very few news outlets. The Society motto is 'The king cannot be saved, the king cannot make custard', which is one of many things the group won't openly say the meaning of. It is run by Peter Lamont, friend and colleague, and Richard Wiseman having events involving The Filmhouse, the British Science Association, Edinburgh's World of Illusions, and The Edinburgh International Science Festival.[25] Through the Edinburgh Secret Society Wiseman has found a new following, hosting evenings of irreverent talks and entertainment on topics including self-help and dying. In February 2011 they staged 'An Evening of Death' in A Victorian Anatomy Theatre at the University of Edinburgh, an event that sold out its 250 tickets within minutes.[6]
Teaching
Wiseman is a professor in "public psychology" at the University of Hertfordshire who divides his time between London and Edinburgh. He is a skeptic who does not believe in extrasensory perception or prayer and who, as a former magician, rejects the purported supernatural experiences reported in seances conducted in darkened rooms where every kind of trickery is available.[6]
Media appearances
Wiseman's research has been featured on over 150 television programmes, including Horizon, Equinox and World in Action.[10] He is regularly heard on BBC Radio 4, including appearances on Start the Week, Midweek and the Today programme. Wiseman also makes numerous appearances on some British television shows; in The Real Hustle he explains the psychology behind many of the scams and confidence tricks; in Mind Games he's a regular team captain of a panel game of puzzles, anagrams and conundrums; and in People Watchers, a hidden-camera show examining human behaviour. Besides being interviewed in several of these television programmes, he was a creative consultant in an episode of Your Bleeped Up Brain and a researcher of the documentary Unlawful Killing.[10]
Wiseman's 2011 book, Paranormality: Why We See What Isn't There was electronically self-published in the United States, as Wiseman was told by American publishers there was no interest in scepticism.[26]
In 2011, the first section of a collaborative story at Libboo in an attempt to produce a full-length novel in two months. The final result of this experiment, was a novel called, Paradox: The Curious Life, and Mysterious Death, of Mr Joseph Wheeler.[27]
Focus on the paranormal
Wiseman is known for his critical examination and frequent debunking of unusual phenomena, including reports of paranormal phenomena. He is a fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI).[8] His research has been published in numerous academic journals, reported at various conferences,[9] and featured on television.[10]
In 2004, he took part in a preliminary test of Natasha Demkina, a young Russian woman who claims to have a special vision that allows her to see inside of people's bodies and diagnose illnesses. The test, whose validity has been disputed by Demkina's supporters,[28][29] was featured in the Discovery Channel documentary, The Girl with X-Ray Eyes.[30]
Wiseman has published studies on anomalistic psychology and the psychology of paranormal belief. He is the author of the book titled Paranormality: Why We See What Isn't There (2011) which takes a psychological approach to paranormal phenomena. The book offers its readers tools to investigate paranormal claims using QR Codes, which Wiseman saw as "exciting use of new media"[26] to allow people to see footage and make up their minds themselves.
In 2020, Wiseman, illustrator Jordan Collver and writer Rik Worth created Hocus Pocus, an interactive comic-book series that "promotes skepticism and critical thinking". The first issue focuses on Victorian performer and mind reader Washington Irving Bishop and pioneer of parapsychologyJoseph Banks Rhine.[31] The second issue features the Fox sisters and séances.[32] In 2022 the series was nominated for "Best Limited Series" at the Eisner Awards.[33] The series was collected into a single volume and published by Vanishing Inc in January 2023.[34]
Dream: ON The App
Wiseman launched the Dream: ON App at the Edinburgh International Science Festival 2012. It is developed and maintained by YUZA, a mobile experience team based in London. The app is powered by an engine which constantly monitors and adjusts the behaviour of Dream: ON; optimising the experience for the user. When the user enters the rapid eye movement (REM) stage of sleep where dreaming is most common, the app delivers unique audio soundscapes which the subconscious is shown to respond to.[35]
"We have created a new way of carrying out mass participation experiments. We still know relatively little about the science of dreaming and this app may provide a real breakthrough in changing how we dream, and record and track those dreams." – Professor Richard Wiseman
The app is also a social experiment: in the morning it presents users with a graph of their movement during the night, allows users to tag any friends who appeared in their dreams via Facebook and invites them to post a short description of their dreams to an experimental "Dream Bank", creating the world's largest dream experiment.[36]
The Good Magic Awards
In collaboration with the Good Thinking Society, Wiseman set up The Good Magic Awards. These awards recognize and reward performers that use magic tricks to improve the lives of people in disadvantaged groups, charities, community groups, hospital patients, and others struggling with physical and psychological challenges.
The awards were announced on March 17, 2020,[37] and were awarded for the first time on May 5, 2020.[38]
NESTA Fellowship for his innovative work in science communication, 2004[citation needed]
In 2011 the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSICOP) presented Wiseman the Robert B. Balles Prize for Critical Thinking for his book Paranormality. "Wiseman is not simply interested in looking at a claim... He is interested in showing us how easy it is for us to be deceived and how easily we can be fooled and fool others."[40]
In 2016 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Science by Abertay University in Dundee.[41]
The Masters Of Magic have announced that Wiseman will be awarded the Golden Grolla award for his work in psychology and illusion at their 2020 convention[42][43]
Royal Society David Attenborough Award and Lecture 2023.[44]
Books
Richard Wiseman talks about 59 Seconds on Bookbits radio.
Wiseman, R. & Morris, R. L. (1995). Guidelines for Testing Psychic Claimants. Hatfield: University of Hertfordshire Press (US edition: Amherst: Prometheus Press).
Milton, J. & Wiseman, R. (1997). Guidelines for Extrasensory Perception Research. Hatfield: University of Hertfordshire Press.
Wiseman, R. (1997). Deception and self-deception: Investigating Psychics. Amherst: Prometheus Press
Lamont, P. & Wiseman, R. (1999). Magic in Theory: an introduction to the theoretical and psychological elements of conjuring. Hatfield: University of Hertfordshire Press (US edition: Hermetic Press).
Wiseman, R. (2002). Laughlab: The Scientific Search For The World's Funniest Joke. London: Random House
Wiseman, R. (2003). The Luck Factor. London: Random House
Wiseman, R. (2004). Did you spot the gorilla? How to recognise hidden opportunities in your life. London: Random House
Wiseman, R. & Watt, C. (2005). Parapsychology. London: Ashgate International Library of Psychology. Series Editor, Prof. David Canter
Wiseman, R. (2007). Quirkology. London: Pan Macmillan
Wiseman, R. (2009). 59 Seconds: Think a Little, Change a Lot. London: Pan Macmillan
Wiseman, R. (2012). Rip it up: The radically new approach to changing your life. London: Macmillan
Wiseman, R. (2014). Night School: Wake up to the power of sleep . London: Macmillan
Wiseman, R. (2018). How to remember things. London: Macmillan
Wiseman, R. (2019). Shoot for the Moon. London: Quercus Editions Ltd
Worth, R., Collver, J. & Wiseman, R. (2020). Hocus Pocus: Science, Magic and Mystery. (Issues 1-5) Self-published
Copperfield, D., Wiseman, R. & Britland, D. (2021). David Copperfield's History of Magic. Simon & Schuster
Worth, R., Collver, J. & Wiseman, R. (2023). Hocus Pocus: The Complete Collection. Vanishing Inc.
Wiseman, R. (2023). "Magic". UK: University of Hertfordshire. Emerald Publishing Limited.
Related Research Articles
Martin Gardner was an American popular mathematics and popular science writer with interests also encompassing scientific skepticism, micromagic, philosophy, religion, and literature – especially the writings of Lewis Carroll, L. Frank Baum, and G. K. Chesterton. He was also a leading authority on Lewis Carroll. The Annotated Alice, which incorporated the text of Carroll's two Alice books, was his most successful work and sold over a million copies. He had a lifelong interest in magic and illusion and in 1999, MAGIC magazine named him as one of the "100 Most Influential Magicians of the Twentieth Century". He was considered the doyen of American puzzlers. He was a prolific and versatile author, publishing more than 100 books.
Parapsychology is the study of alleged psychic phenomena and other paranormal claims, for example, those related to near-death experiences, synchronicity, apparitional experiences, etc. Criticized as being a pseudoscience, the majority of mainstream scientists reject it. Parapsychology has also been criticised by mainstream critics for claims by many of its practitioners that their studies are plausible despite a lack of convincing evidence after more than a century of research for the existence of any psychic phenomena.
The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI), formerly known as the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), is a program within the U.S. non-profit organization Center for Inquiry (CFI), which seeks to "promote scientific inquiry, critical investigation, and the use of reason in examining controversial and extraordinary claims." Paul Kurtz proposed the establishment of CSICOP in 1976 as an independent non-profit organization, to counter what he regarded as an uncritical acceptance of, and support for, paranormal claims by both the media and society in general. Its philosophical position is one of scientific skepticism. CSI's fellows have included notable scientists, Nobel laureates, philosophers, psychologists, educators, and authors. It is headquartered in Amherst, New York.
Remote viewing (RV) is the practice of seeking impressions about a distant or unseen subject, purportedly sensing with the mind. Typically a remote viewer is expected to give information about an object, event, person or location that is hidden from physical view and separated at some distance. Physicists Russell Targ and Harold Puthoff, parapsychology researchers at Stanford Research Institute (SRI), are generally credited with coining the term "remote viewing" to distinguish it from the closely related concept of clairvoyance. According to Targ, the term was first suggested by Ingo Swann in December 1971 during an experiment at the American Society for Psychical Research in New York City.
Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Notable paranormal beliefs include those that pertain to extrasensory perception, spiritualism and the pseudosciences of ghost hunting, cryptozoology, and ufology.
Charles Henry Honorton was an American parapsychologist and was one of the leaders of a collegial group of researchers who were determined to apply established scientific research methods to the examination of what they called "anomalous information transfer" and other phenomena associated with the "mind/body problem"—the idea that mind might, at least in some respects, have a physical existence independent of the body.
Christopher Charles French is a British psychologist specialising in the psychology of paranormal beliefs and experiences, cognition and emotion. He is the head of the University of London's anomalistic Psychology Research Unit and appears regularly in the media as an expert on testing paranormal claims.
Kendrick Crosby Frazier was an American science writer and longtime editor of Skeptical Inquirer magazine. He was also a former editor of Science News, author or editor of ten books, and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He was a fellow and a member of the executive council of Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI), an international organization which promotes scientific inquiry.
Stanley Krippner is an American psychologist and parapsychologist. He received a B.S. degree from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1954 and M.A. (1957) and Ph.D. (1961) degrees from Northwestern University.
James E. Alcock is a Canadian educator. He has been a Professor of Psychology at York University (Canada) since 1973. Alcock is a noted critic of parapsychology and is a Fellow and Member of the Executive Council for the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. He is a member of the Editorial Board of The Skeptical Inquirer, and a frequent contributor to the magazine. He has also been a columnist for Humanist Perspectives Magazine. In 1999, a panel of skeptics named him among the two dozen most outstanding skeptics of the 20th century. In May 2004, CSICOP awarded Alcock CSI's highest honor, the In Praise of Reason Award. Alcock is also an amateur magician and is a member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians. As of 2020, he is currently on leave from York University.
In psychology, anomalistic psychology is the study of human behaviour and experience connected with what is often called the paranormal, with few assumptions made about the validity of the reported phenomena.
Skeptics in the Pub is an informal social event designed to promote fellowship and social networking among skeptics, critical thinkers, freethinkers, rationalists and other like-minded individuals. It provides an opportunity for skeptics to talk, share ideas and have fun in a casual atmosphere, and discuss whatever topical issues come to mind, while promoting skepticism, science, and rationality.
Theodore Deodatus Nathaniel Besterman was a Polish-born British psychical researcher, bibliographer, biographer, and translator. In 1945 he became the first editor of the Journal of Documentation. From the 1950s he devoted himself to studies of the works of Voltaire.
Telekinesis is a hypothetical psychic ability allowing an individual to influence a physical system without physical interaction. Experiments to prove the existence of telekinesis have historically been criticized for lack of proper controls and repeatability. There is no reliable evidence that telekinesis is a real phenomenon, and the topic is generally regarded as pseudoscience.
Edinburgh Skeptics is a nonprofit organisation that promotes science, reason and critical thinking in Edinburgh and throughout Scotland. It was founded in 2009. The Society hosts regular social and educational events in Edinburgh and has campaigned against the use of homeopathy and challenged claims of ghost sightings.
The Association for Skeptical Enquiry (ASKE) is a skeptical organisation in the United Kingdom.
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Deborah Hyde is a British sceptic, folklorist, cultural anthropologist, Ufologist, fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, and editor-in-chief of The Skeptic. She writes and lectures extensively about superstition, cryptozoology, religion and belief in the paranormal, with special regard to the folklore, psychology and sociology behind these phenomena, and has been introduced as a "vampire expert". Hyde has also worked in the motion picture industry.
Paranormality: Why we see what isn't there is a 2011 book about the paranormal by psychologist and magician Richard Wiseman. Wiseman argues that paranormal phenomena such as psychics, telepathy, ghosts, out-of-body experiences, prophesy and more do not exist, and explores why people continue to believe, and what that tells us about human behavior and the way the brain functions. Wiseman uses QR codes throughout the book, which link to YouTube videos as examples and as experiments the reader can participate in to further explain the phenomena. Because of a cautious American publishing market, it was only available in America through Kindle. Paranormality was awarded the Center for Inquiry's Robert P. Balles award for 2011.
Hocus Pocus 2 is a 2022 American fantasy comedy film directed by Anne Fletcher, written by Jen D'Angelo and produced by Walt Disney Pictures. A sequel to the 1993 film Hocus Pocus, it stars Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kathy Najimy, and Doug Jones reprising their roles, with Sam Richardson, Whitney Peak, Belissa Escobedo, Tony Hale, and Hannah Waddingham joining the cast in new roles.
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