They describe how if you have ever bought an expensive item you had sworn you would never buy, the salesperson was creating the “illusion of choice,” a core technique of magic. They also relate the use of magic to Bernie Madoff’s “illusion of trust”. Through these examples, Macknik’s and Martinez-Conde’s Sleights of Mind illuminates the reasons for studying magic, and its implications for research on, and renewed understanding of, perceptual and cognitive processes.