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Richard Wiseman
Richard Wiseman
Richard Wiseman
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Richard John Wiseman (born 16 September 1966)[2] is a professor of the public understanding of psychology at the University of Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom.[3] He has written several psychology books. He has given keynote addresses to the Royal Society, the Swiss Economic Forum, Google and Amazon.[4][5] He is a fellow for the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and a patron of Humanists UK. Wiseman is also the creator of the YouTube channels Quirkology and In59Seconds.[6]

Key Information

Early life and education

[edit]

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.[7]

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

[edit]

After completing his PhD, he became Britain's first professor in the public understanding of psychology at the University of Hertfordshire.[7]

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.[8]

Psychological research

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Wiseman critically examines and frequently debunks unusual phenomena, including reports of paranormal phenomena. He is a fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI).[9] His research has been published in numerous academic journals, reported at various conferences,[10] and featured on television.[11]

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.[12]

Public engagement

[edit]

Wiseman prefers to make discuss, research and think about the implications of his work; instead of talking directly about eyewitness testimony in law, he would set something up that looked like it, such as his colour-changing card trick.[13] In this mindset, 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.[13][14]

In 2001, Wiseman led LaughLab, an international experiment to find the world's funniest joke.[15] 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".[15] 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.[16]

In 2013 Richard Wiseman became the first guest curator at Edinburgh's International Science Festival.[7] He participated in the festival with "Richard Wiseman's Beginners Guide to... Climate Change".[17] In 2014 he does a repeat of his 'Beginners Guide to' but this time with 3 different talks:

Wiseman has also become a content creator on YouTube after uploading a video of the colour changing card trick[21] 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"[22] in promotion of his book of the same name.

Wiseman is a patron of Humanists UK and appeared in the Nine Lessons and Carols for Godless People Christmas stage show organised by the New Humanist.[23] He is also a Distinguished Supporter of Humanist Society Scotland.[24]

In 2017 Wiseman interviewed Richard Dawkins at CSIcon Las Vegas 2017 covering topics on evolution, extra terrestrials and god.[25]

Edinburgh Secret Society

[edit]

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.[26] 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.[7]

Teaching

[edit]

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.[7]

Media appearances

[edit]

Wiseman's research has been featured on over 150 television programmes, including Horizon, Equinox and World in Action.[11] 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.[11]

Feature articles about his work have regularly appeared in The Times, The Daily Telegraph and The Guardian.

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.[27]

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.[28]

Focus on the paranormal

[edit]

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).[9] His research has been published in numerous academic journals, reported at various conferences,[10] and featured on television.[11]

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,[29][30] was featured in the Discovery Channel documentary, The Girl with X-Ray Eyes.[31]

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"[27] 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 parapsychology Joseph Banks Rhine.[32] The second issue features the Fox sisters and séances.[33] In 2022 the series was nominated for "Best Limited Series" at the Eisner Awards.[34] The series was collected into a single volume and published by Vanishing Inc in January 2023.[35]

Dream: ON The App

[edit]

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.[36]

"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.[37]

The Good Magic Awards

[edit]

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,[38] and were awarded for the first time on May 5, 2020.[39]

Awards

[edit]
Richard Wiseman (left) during TAM9 in 2011, with Phil Plait and Joe Nickell

Books

[edit]
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. (2011). Paranormality: Why we see what isn't there. 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.

References

[edit]
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Richard Wiseman

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Richard Wiseman (born 1966) is a British experimental psychologist and author who holds the United Kingdom's only professorship in the Public Understanding of Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire, where he conducts research on topics including luck, deception, humor, and anomalistic psychology. Beginning his career as a professional magician and one of the youngest members of The Magic Circle, Wiseman transitioned to academia, earning a degree in psychology from University College London and a PhD in the psychology of the paranormal from the University of Edinburgh. Wiseman's empirical studies have demonstrated that self-professed "lucky" individuals tend to exhibit greater , extroversion, and to new experiences, enabling them to notice and capitalize on opportunities more effectively than others, as revealed in a decade-long investigation involving surveys, experiments, and longitudinal tracking. His work on phenomena emphasizes psychological explanations for reported experiences such as hauntings and , arguing through controlled experiments that such claims lack empirical support and arise from cognitive biases, sensory misinterpretations, and environmental factors. He has authored bestselling books like The Luck Factor, Quirkology, and Paranormality, which translate academic findings into accessible advice, with over three million copies sold and translations into more than twenty languages. Beyond research, Wiseman engages the public through mass participation experiments, keynote addresses to organizations including the Royal Society and , and media appearances debunking , earning recognition such as Humanist of the Year from the for promoting rational inquiry over superstition. His approach integrates first-hand magical expertise to expose how illusions and expectation shape perception, challenging unsubstantiated beliefs with replicable evidence rather than anecdotal testimony.

Early life and education

Upbringing and early interests

Richard Wiseman was born in , , on 16 September 1966, and spent his formative years there. From a young age, he exhibited a fascination with and , honing his skills through practice and performance. By his teenage years, he was working as a magician, entertaining crowds in London's area, which exposed him to the intricacies of and . These early experiences with magic ignited Wiseman's broader interest in the mechanisms of the human mind, including how illusions exploit cognitive vulnerabilities and influence behavior. He began questioning the boundaries between reality and trickery, which paralleled emerging curiosities about psychological principles such as , , and . This blend of practical performance and intellectual inquiry shaped his trajectory toward formal study in , though magic remained a foundational pursuit.

Academic training

Wiseman earned a degree in from University College London, graduating with first-class honours. He then pursued postgraduate studies at the University of Edinburgh, where he completed a PhD in in 1992. His doctoral thesis examined the psychology of deception, investigating how magicians and individuals claiming psychic abilities employ techniques to mislead observers. This built on his prior experience as a professional magician, applying empirical methods to analyze perceptual and cognitive vulnerabilities exploited in illusions and purported demonstrations.

Professional beginnings

Career as a professional magician

Wiseman commenced his professional career as a magician in his teenage years, performing street magic shows in London's district. These performances involved engaging crowds in the West End, honing skills in illusion and audience interaction that later informed his . He joined The Magic Circle, becoming one of its youngest members, which granted him access to a network of professional performers and resources for developing acts. In 1983, at age 17, Wiseman competed in The Magic Circle's Young Magician of the Year contest, competing alongside emerging talents in close-up and stage magic. He advanced to membership in the Inner Magic Circle, recognizing expertise in magical performance and invention. During this period, Wiseman expanded his repertoire by traveling to the for professional engagements and collaborating with seasoned performers on routines involving and misdirection. His work emphasized psychological principles underlying illusions, such as and expectation, which he applied in live settings before transitioning to academia. This phase of his career, spanning from the early until his university studies, established foundational expertise in magic that persisted in consultative roles for television and stage productions, including contributions to projects with Penn and Teller.

Entry into psychological research

Wiseman transitioned from a career as a professional magician to driven by his interest in audience reactions to illusions and . As a performer, he sought deeper insights into perceptual and cognitive processes underlying magical effects, prompting him to pursue formal academic training in . He enrolled for an undergraduate degree in at , completing it before advancing to doctoral studies. This educational path marked his initial formal entry into the field, bridging his practical experience in with empirical investigation. Wiseman then obtained a PhD from the , focusing his thesis on the assessment of claimants through schema theory, examining strong claims of abilities. This work represented his entry into anomalistic , integrating skeptical inquiry with experimental methods to test and in extraordinary phenomena. His doctoral research laid the foundation for subsequent studies on , , and cognitive biases, leveraging his magician's expertise for rigorous, evidence-based analysis.

Academic career

University appointments

Richard Wiseman joined the in 1992, marking the start of his primary academic affiliation. There, he initially focused on into and . In 1994, he was appointed director of the Perrot-Warrick Research Unit at the same institution, a role dedicated to investigating claims of the through empirical methods. Wiseman holds Britain's only Professorship in the Public Understanding of Psychology at the , a position he assumed by 2003. This chair emphasizes bridging academic with public engagement, aligning with his work on topics like , , and . No other formal university appointments outside are documented in his career trajectory.

Teaching and mentorship roles

Wiseman holds Britain's only Professorship in the Public Understanding of at the , a position focused on bridging academic research with public dissemination. His teaching specialisms encompass the psychology of performance, magic, and public engagement, integrating demonstrations of illusions to illustrate cognitive principles such as and . In mentorship, Wiseman has supervised doctoral students investigating topics at the intersection of and anomalous claims. Notable supervisees include Ciaran O'Keeffe, whose 2004 PhD thesis at the , titled Assessing the Content of Advice from Practitioners, examined parapsychological practices under Wiseman's guidance. He also provided ongoing supervision for Lois Alexander's research on resilience and humor among firefighters, contributing insights into psychological factors like humor's role in coping. Wiseman's oversight extends to PhD candidates exploring skeptical inquiries into parapsychological issues, emphasizing empirical testing over unsubstantiated claims.

Research contributions

Studies on luck and cognitive biases

Wiseman conducted a ten-year investigation into luck, recruiting around 400 volunteers aged 18 to 84 who self-identified as exceptionally lucky or unlucky through advertisements in national newspapers and magazines. Participants, drawn from varied professions such as and , underwent interviews, kept luck diaries, completed personality and intelligence questionnaires, and participated in laboratory experiments to assess differences in their experiences and perceptions of fortune. A notable experiment involved handing participants a newspaper and instructing them to count the photographs within it. Halfway through, page 2 featured a large bold message reading "Stop counting—There are 43 photographs in this newspaper," which lucky participants typically noticed within seconds, while unlucky ones took approximately two minutes, often overlooking it entirely due to heightened anxiety impairing peripheral awareness. A similar message on a later page offering £250 for informing the experimenter reinforced this pattern, with unlucky individuals again failing to detect it more frequently, demonstrating how tension narrows attentional scope and reduces detection of serendipitous cues. Personality assessments revealed unlucky participants to be significantly more anxious and tense than their lucky counterparts, a state empirically linked to disrupted cognitive processing that hinders opportunity recognition. Wiseman identified four behavioral principles underlying perceived luck: maximizing chance opportunities through openness and routine variation; relying on for ; fostering positive expectations that generate self-fulfilling outcomes; and adopting resilience to adversity via reframing, such as where individuals imagine worse alternatives to mitigate negative events. These findings implicate cognitive mechanisms, including anxiety-induced attentional biases that limit environmental scanning, akin to under stress, and biases that perpetuate self-concepts of luckiness or unluckiness by selectively interpreting events. In a follow-up "luck school" intervention, participants trained in these principles reported sustained improvements, with 80% describing themselves as luckier and happier after one month, exemplified by one formerly unlucky volunteer experiencing fewer accidents and greater . The research posits luck as malleable through and habits rather than inherent , challenging fatalistic views while highlighting perceptual distortions in fortune attribution.

Investigations into deception and illusion

Wiseman's investigations into deception encompass empirical studies on lie detection, verbal and non-verbal cues, and the efficacy of purported diagnostic techniques. Drawing from his expertise in magic, he has emphasized how cognitive biases and contextual factors impair accurate deception recognition, with research demonstrating that laypeople typically perform only slightly above chance levels in identifying lies. A landmark large-scale experiment, the 1995 MegaLab Truth Test involving over 13,000 participants across , tested by having confederates deliver truthful or deceptive statements via audio clips; results showed detection rates of 73.4% among radio listeners, 64.2% among readers, and 51.8% among television viewers, all exceeding random guessing (50%) but highlighting media-specific perceptual influences. In a subsequent mass-participation study detailed in his book Quirkology, Wiseman reported that participants correctly identified lies in video testimonies at approximately 70% accuracy when provided with minimal training on baseline behaviors, underscoring the role of behavioral deviations over stereotypes like or gaze aversion. Wiseman has rigorously tested and refuted several folk and pseudoscientific methods for spotting . A 2012 experiment with 32 participants challenged Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) assertions that leftward/upward eye movements indicate cognitive construction or lying; analysis of eye-tracking data during truth/lie tasks revealed no significant directional differences, attributing perceived patterns to rather than reliable indicators. He has also developed practical tools, such as the "Q-test"—a simple drawing task where right-sided forehead placements correlate with poorer lying skills due to introverted tendencies—validated through self-report correlations in experimental samples. In parallel, Wiseman's research on probes perceptual misdirection and cognitive vulnerabilities exploited in and visual tricks. His studies frame illusions as windows into brain mechanisms, revealing how expectations and attentional shifts generate false perceptions without elements. Key contributions include the 2018 identification and analysis of "Impossible Movement Illusions," three geometric configurations (e.g., rotating rings with asymmetric spokes) that induce illusory ; psychophysical tests with 20 observers confirmed motion aftereffects persist for seconds post-stimulation, linking the phenomena to low-level visual processing rather than higher . Wiseman has created exhibition-scale illusions, such as adaptive displays for public events, and in 2024 examined performances' effects on "" (overly optimistic self-views), finding brief exposure temporarily boosts well-being via but not sustained belief change in 50 participants. Addressing viral claims, a 2025 study with 200+ respondents debunked assertions that ambiguous optical (e.g., duck-rabbit figures) predict traits like or anxiety; statistical analyses showed null correlations between first-perceived elements and validated inventories such as the Big Five or State-Trait Anxiety Scale, cautioning against unfalsifiable online diagnostics. These findings collectively advance causal models of and as products of evolved heuristics prone to exploitation, informing applications in forensics, , and countering .

Skeptical inquiries into paranormal claims

Wiseman has empirically tested claims of ghostly hauntings through controlled investigations at reputedly haunted sites, emphasizing psychological and environmental explanations over ones. In a 1999 study at , over 600 participants walked through the Haunted Gallery, reporting anomalous sensations that correlated with measurable factors such as air currents, temperature variations, and geomagnetic fluctuations rather than any presence; believers in the experienced more phenomena than skeptics. A similar 2001 experiment in Edinburgh's South Bridge Vaults involved participants unaware of the site's reputation documenting experiences, which were higher in designated "haunted" areas due to physical attributes like restricted airflow and spatial confinement, again modulated by belief predisposition. Complementing these field studies, Wiseman explored infrasound's role in by exposing concert audiences to low-frequency vibrations, resulting in increased reports of anxiety, chills, and visual distortions akin to haunting accounts, demonstrating how subtle environmental stimuli can mimic ghostly effects without invoking the . He has also analyzed public-submitted ghost photographs, attributing most anomalies—such as orbs and apparitions—to mundane causes like particles, lens flares, and long-exposure artifacts, with rigorous voting protocols confirming natural interpretations in nearly all cases examined during the 2009 International Festival. In testing mediumship, Wiseman and Ciarán O'Keeffe devised a 2005 protocol using screened audio feeds and rapid questioning to eliminate cues and , evaluating five self-proclaimed against sitters' deceased relatives; hit rates averaged 43.6% for accurate identifications, falling short of claimed abilities and aligning with chance or generalized knowledge rather than contact. Wiseman's examinations of (ESP) include a 1992 collaboration with John Beloff and Robert L. Morris testing the SORRAT group's table-tipping and psychokinetic claims via sealed ESP card protocols, which produced scores indistinguishable from random guessing (z = -0.15, p > 0.05), undermining assertions of anomalous cognition. He co-authored meta-analyses critiquing ganzfeld studies (1999), finding no replicable above-chance effects in post-1987 data, and protocols, highlighting flaws like sensory cueing in CIA-funded research. Large-scale efforts, such as interactive kiosks amassing over 100,000 ESP trials (1999–2002) and Twitter-based challenges (2010), consistently yielded null results, with deviations from chance expectation failing and attributable to selection biases or normal perceptual processes. These inquiries reinforce Wiseman's position that reports stem from cognitive illusions, expectation effects, and misattributed natural causes, lacking verifiable for extraordinary mechanisms.

Public engagement and outreach

Authored publications and books

Richard Wiseman has authored multiple bestselling books that translate into accessible insights on topics such as , , and the , with over 3 million copies sold worldwide and translations into more than 20 languages. These works emphasize evidence-based techniques for personal improvement, often challenging common misconceptions through experiments and psychological studies. Among his prominent titles is The Luck Factor: The Scientific Study of the Lucky Mind (2003), which presents findings from a decade-long study involving over 400 participants, arguing that luck arises from cognitive and behavioral patterns like openness to opportunities rather than chance alone. Quirkology: How We Discover the Big Truths in Small Things (2007) examines quirky aspects of , including the of names, superstitions, and humor, drawing on surveys and experiments to reveal hidden influences on behavior. 59 Seconds: Think a Little, Change a Lot (2009) distills advice into one-minute interventions backed by meta-analyses of psychological studies, critiquing unproven popular methods in favor of concise, scientifically validated strategies for and . Other notable popular works include Paranormality: Why We See What Isn't There (2011), which debunks supernatural claims through explanations for phenomena like ghosts and , incorporating illusions and perceptual biases. Night School: The Life-Changing Science of Sleep (2014) analyzes sleep research to offer practical techniques for improving rest and . More recent books, such as Rip It Up: The Radically New Approach to Changing Your Life (also published as The As If Principle, 2013), advocate acting "as if" desired traits are already present to foster behavioral change, supported by studies on . Wiseman has also co-authored David Copperfield's History of Magic (2019), a illustrated volume tracing the evolution of stage magic with historical artifacts. In scholarly contexts, Wiseman has produced over 100 peer-reviewed research papers on topics including , , , and magic-based interventions for and . Examples include "Conjuring up creativity: the effect of performing magic tricks on " (2021), which experimentally links magic performance to enhanced innovative thinking, and "Seeing the impossible: The impact of watching magic on positive emotions, and " (2024). He has co-authored academic books such as Magic in Theory: An Introduction to the Theoretical and Psychological Elements of Conjuring (1999, with Peter Lamont), which applies psychological principles to illusion techniques, and Parapsychology: A Handbook for the 21st Century (2005, with Caroline Watt), providing methodological guidelines for testing extraordinary claims. Additionally, Psychology: Why It Matters (2022) serves as an introductory text inspiring applied .

Media appearances and broadcasts

Wiseman has presented and appeared on numerous television programs, often demonstrating psychological principles through experiments and illusions. He hosted the hidden-camera series The People Watchers (2007), which examined in everyday situations using concealed filming techniques. On , a program exposing scams, Wiseman contributed psychological insights into the tactics used by deceivers. He served as resident psychologist on the panel show (1998–2001), where contestants competed to detect , drawing on his research into nonverbal cues and . Additional television credits include guest spots on National Geographic's Brain Games, illustrating cognitive biases and perceptual tricks, and performances of mind-bending illusions on The Nightly Show. Wiseman has also acted as a for television projects, including those featuring illusionist , advising on the integration of psychological effects. In radio broadcasting, Wiseman maintains a prominent presence on BBC platforms, with regular guest appearances on The Infinite Monkey Cage, a science-comedy hosted by Brian Cox and , discussing topics from to the . He has featured on 4's The Today Programme, providing expert commentary on . Other recurring slots include Start the Week and Midweek on Radio 4. Wiseman presented the Radio 4 episode Masters of the Impossible, exploring the history of through practitioners like . In April 2025, he hosted a 60-minute Radio 4 special on mind magic, highlighting the techniques of illusionists. Further broadcasts encompass Discovery, where he addressed and , and appearances on and Scotland's Comedy Magic. Overall, Wiseman has contributed to hundreds of radio and television programs, emphasizing empirical demonstrations over unsubstantiated claims.

Digital projects, apps, and podcasts

Wiseman created the Quirkology YouTube channel in 2007, featuring videos on psychological experiments, optical illusions, magic tricks, and improbable stunts designed to demonstrate principles of perception and cognition. The channel, described as family-friendly, includes content such as "bets you always win" and science demonstrations, amassing millions of views across uploads that explore everyday quirks of the mind. In 2012, Wiseman collaborated with software developer YUZA to launch the Dream:ON for , which monitors users' sleep movements via sensors and plays targeted soundscapes to influence dream content. The app enables users to select dream themes—such as flying or meeting celebrities—before , with the goal of inducing lucid or themed dreams based on into sensory incorporation during REM ; it also collected anonymous data for a crowdsourced study on dream manipulation, potentially aiding those with frequent nightmares or depression-linked dreaming patterns. Wiseman has conducted online experiments through his Quirkology website, including a deception detection test where participants analyzed video clips to identify lies, revealing common cues like gaze aversion and verbal hesitations that correlate with in controlled settings. Earlier, in , he ran a web-based humor study soliciting thousands of jokes to quantify what makes content funny, finding patterns in brevity, surprise, and superiority themes across submissions. Since 2023, Wiseman has hosted the Richard Wiseman's On Your Mind, co-presented with Marnie, which delivers episodes on topics like cognitive biases, , and behavioral change, such as the psychology of friendship or workplace productivity, drawing from empirical studies to offer practical insights. The show, available on platforms including and , emphasizes interactive elements and has received listener ratings averaging 4.9 out of 5 for its accessible breakdown of psychological research.

Founded initiatives and events

Wiseman pioneered the use of mass participation experiments to investigate psychological phenomena, conducting numerous large-scale studies that engaged tens of thousands of volunteers through online platforms, interactive kiosks, and public events. These initiatives, often branded under his Quirkology framework—a research program he founded to explore quirky aspects of through empirical methods—emphasized public involvement to generate robust datasets on topics such as humor, , and . One prominent example is LaughLab, launched by Wiseman in 2001 in collaboration with the British Association for the Advancement of Science, which sought to identify the via public submissions and ratings. The project collected over 40,000 s and 1.5 million individual assessments from participants worldwide, culminating in the announcement of a winning joke about two hunters in 2002; analysis revealed patterns in humor preferences, such as preferences for short setups and surprise elements. Other key mass experiments include the MegaLab Truth Test in the early 2000s, which tested public ability to detect lies through video clips and involved nationwide participation via kiosks, finding average accuracy rates around 54%—barely above chance. Wiseman also initiated a 2000 investigation at , reputed for hauntings, where 1,027 volunteers reported experiences, with data linking perceptions to environmental factors like and suggestion rather than supernatural causes; this set a for the largest such study. In , he planned and developed a controlled "" environment to simulate and debunk ghostly phenomena through psychological variables. Additional projects encompassed a 2010 Twitter-based remote viewing test with thousands of participants, which found no evidence for ; a 2014 dream control study involving public techniques for lucid dreaming; and a 2009 experiment validating simple interventions like smiling and positive recall for mood enhancement. These efforts, totaling over a dozen major studies, demonstrated the feasibility of crowdsourced research while prioritizing verifiable, replicable outcomes over anecdotal claims.

Awards and honors

Recognition in psychology and skepticism

Wiseman holds Britain's only professorship in the Public Understanding of at the , a position established to recognize his extensive work in bridging academic with public dissemination through experiments, books, and media. This role underscores his impact on applying psychological principles to everyday phenomena, including cognitive biases and . In skepticism, Wiseman is a Fellow of the (CSI), an affiliation honoring his rigorous empirical investigations into paranormal claims and promotion of . In 2000, he received the CSICOP Public Education in Science Award—CSICOP being CSI's predecessor—for advancing public understanding of scientific methods against . In 2011, CSI awarded him the Robert P. Balles Annual Prize in , a $1,500 honor, for his book Paranormality: Why We See What Isn't There, which demonstrates through experiments how psychological mechanisms underpin apparent experiences. Further recognition includes the 2019 Humanist Media Award from the for his skeptical outreach via books, television, and experiments debunking illusions and myths. In 2023, the Royal Society presented him with the Award for sustained public engagement with the of deception and , highlighting his fusion of empirical and skeptical . He also serves as a patron of , reflecting endorsement of his rationalist approach to anomalous claims.

Public communication accolades

In 2000, Wiseman received the Public Education in Science Award from the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP) for his efforts in educating the public on psychological principles and debunking pseudoscience. In 2002, the British Association for the Advancement of Science (now the British Science Association) presented him with the Joseph Lister Award, recognizing his effective communication of scientific ideas to broad audiences through mass participation experiments and media outreach. These early accolades highlighted his innovative use of entertainment, such as magic demonstrations, to convey empirical insights into human cognition and perception. Wiseman's appointment to Britain's sole Professorship in the Public Understanding of Psychology at the further underscored his commitment to bridging academic research and public discourse, a role he has held since the early . In 2004, he earned a DreamTime Fellowship from the National Endowment for , and the Arts (NESTA) for pioneering interactive projects that engaged thousands in psychological experiments via the and public events. In 2023, the Royal Society awarded Wiseman the Award and Lecture for outstanding public engagement with , specifically praising his sustained work exploring the of magic, illusion, and deception to foster . The award, which includes a and £2,000 prize, acknowledges individuals who innovate in science communication beyond traditional academia, aligning with Wiseman's approach of using storytelling, experiments, and digital media to demystify cognitive biases.

Controversies and criticisms

Disputes with parapsychology proponents

Wiseman has collaborated with proponents in experimental tests of psi phenomena, often yielding null results that highlight discrepancies between proponent-led and skeptic-involved replications. In joint studies on the "sense of being stared at" using measures, proponent Marilyn Schlitz initially reported significant effects in her (effect sizes 0.50 and 0.33, p=0.04 and 0.05), while Wiseman's independent attempts produced chance-level outcomes (effect sizes 0.11 and 0.07, p=0.64 and 0.69). A subsequent 2006 collaborative experiment with 100 participants across conditions failed to detect any psi-mediated arousal differences (p=0.87 and 0.72), suggesting prior positives may have arisen from artifacts, suboptimal controls, or statistical flukes rather than genuine effects. Proponents have attributed such failures to potential disruptions from skeptical observers, though the study emphasized methodological rigor to minimize confounds. In a 2010 critique published in Skeptical Inquirer, Wiseman contended that systematically undermine null findings through post-hoc rationales, such as experimenter effects, non-conducive conditions, or paradigm shifts, rendering hypotheses unfalsifiable and perpetuating a toward positive results. He referenced his 1999 with Julie Milton on experiments, which found no overall psi evidence (hit rates near 25% chance expectation) and indicated a decline effect in replications, implying initial positives stemmed from flaws or selective reporting. advocates, including and Patrizio Tressoldi, rebutted that Ganzfeld reproducibility aligns with mainstream psychology (around 25% significant studies versus 5% expected by chance), with minimal file-drawer requiring implausibly large unpublished nulls (e.g., 2,414 for Ganzfeld) to explain aggregates, and no consistent experimenter or decline effects in updated analyses. Wiseman maintained that such defenses exemplify selective nullification, as proponent labs rarely self-replicate under strict protocols, prioritizing empirical failures over adjustments. A prominent dispute arose with biologist Rupert Sheldrake over claims of animal telepathy, particularly the case of Jaytee, a dog purportedly sensing its owner's return home. Sheldrake's observations suggested anticipatory behavior uncorrelated with sensory cues, supported by video analyses showing arousal peaks before the owner's departure decisions. Wiseman's 1998 team tested multiple pets under controlled routes and found reactions aligned with learned behavioral signals (e.g., habitual return times) rather than psi, with no anomalous anticipations in blinded trials. Sheldrake criticized the tests for inadequate blinding, biased video selection, and ignoring data points favoring psi (e.g., 73% of returns showing early arousal), accusing Wiseman of data manipulation to fit null conclusions. Wiseman countered that Sheldrake's reanalyses cherry-picked outliers and overlooked confounds like owner-dog bonds reinforcing routines, with subsequent replications by neutral parties failing to support telepathic detection. This exchange, extending into public forums like a 2010 podcast debate, underscores tensions over interpretive standards, where skeptics demand replicable anomalies under varied conditions and proponents invoke contextual sensitivities.

Methodological and interpretive debates

Wiseman's research on the of , detailed in his 2003 The Luck Factor, has prompted interpretive debates among statisticians and psychologists regarding the causal mechanisms underlying perceived . Critics, including statistician David Aldous, contend that the study's reliance on self-selected participants who already identified as "lucky" or "unlucky" introduces , as questions about were posed to individuals predisposed to frame their experiences in those terms, potentially inflating correlations without establishing independent validation of the construct. Aldous further questions whether observed behaviors—such as and —generate good fortune or merely reflect post-hoc attributions of to random events, noting that the experiments, like the opportunity-spotting task involving 200 participants, demonstrate perceptual differences but do not conclusively prove mindset alters probabilistic outcomes. Methodological concerns have also arisen over the scale and controls in Wiseman's longitudinal interventions, where self-reported "luck journals" led participants to report increased positive outcomes over months, but without blinded controls or objective metrics beyond subjective diaries, skeptics argue these effects could stem from demand characteristics, , or responses rather than genuine shifts in fortune. Wiseman counters that randomized elements, such as dice-rolling tasks showing no deviation from chance regardless of self-perceived , isolate perceptual factors from true , supporting his interpretation that trainable attitudes enhance opportunity detection. Nonetheless, the absence of large-scale, pre-registered replications has fueled calls for more rigorous testing to disentangle self-fulfilling prophecies from causal efficacy.

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