Sleights of hand, sleights of mind →

Magicians take advantage of this to manipulate their spectators attentional spotlight. They know, for example, that the eyes give off important social cues, and that people have a natural impulse to pay attention to the objects that others are attending to. They exploit this joint attention by using their eye movements to divert the audiences attention away from the method – the secret action behind the trick – and towards the magical effect.
via Sleights of hand, sleights of mind | Mo Costandi | Neurophilosophy blog | Science | guardian.co.uk.