Mastering the Impossible: Piloting an Easier-Than-Expected Magic Intervention that Acts as a Source of Self-Efficacy

• Published in: Psychology of consciousness (Washington, D.C.) D.C.), 2022-09, Vol.9 (3), p.243-256
• Main Authors: Bagienski, Steven E., Kuhn, Gustav, Goddard, Lorna, de Almeida e Souza Brodtkorb, Sophie
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Arts; Audiences; Awareness; Curiosity; Female; Human; Intervention; Male; Positive Emotions; Problem Solving; Self-Confidence; Self-Efficacy
• ISSN: 2326-5523; 2326-5531
• DOI: 10.1037/cns0000332

The greatest achievements often arise from challenging the status quo of what is thought to be possible. These types of achievements require certain beliefs about one's capabilities, but little has been done to explore the value of imaginal self-efficacy sources. We conceptually argue that a potent source of self-efficacy is an actual mastery experience that is also perceived as impossible. As a result, this experience contains advantages of both imaginal and actual success experiences. In part, this result is due to the conscious awareness of social reactions to a seemingly impossible event. Based on this argument, we created a brief arts-based intervention that involved learning a simple magic trick to create an "imaginal mastery experience" and piloted the intervention by measuring its impact on self-efficacy. Our results suggest that the pilot intervention may have enhanced participants' personal self-efficacy. Participants overestimated the difficulty of the trick, whereas their confidence in performing it increased. A thematic analysis of how participants perceived their audience's social reaction revealed that the magic trick involved surprise, curiosity and interest, confusion, and other positive emotions. Psychological theories and directions for future work on developing this pilot intervention are discussed.