The art of misdirection

Hailed as the greatest pickpocket in the world, Apollo Robbins studies the quirks of human behavior as he steals your watch. In a hilarious demonstration, Robbins samples the buffet of the TEDGlobal 2013 audience, showing how the flaws in our perception make it possible to swipe a wallet and leave it on its owner’s shoulder while they remain clueless.

Do you think it's possible
to control someone's attention?

Even more than that,
what about predicting human behavior?

I think those are interesting ideas.

For me, that would be
the perfect superpower,

actually kind of an evil way
of approaching it.

But for myself, in the past,
I've spent the last 20 years

studying human behavior
from a rather unorthodox way:

picking pockets.

When we think of misdirection,

we think of something
as looking off to the side,

when actually the things
right in front of us

are often the hardest to see,

the things that you look at every day
that you're blinded to.

For example, how many of you still have
your cell phones on you right now?

Great. Double-check.

Make sure you still have them.

I was doing some shopping before.

(Laughter)

You've looked at them a few times today,

but I'll ask you a question.

Without looking at it directly yet,

can you remember the icon
in the bottom right corner?

Bring them out, check and see
how accurate you were.

How'd you do?

Show of hands. Did we get it?

Now that you're done, close them down.

Every phone has something in common.

No matter how you organize the icons,

you still have a clock on the front.

So, without looking at your phone,
what time was it?

You just looked at your clock, right?

Interesting idea.

Let's take that a step further
with a game of trust.

Close your eyes.

I realize I'm asking you to do
that while you just heard

there's a pickpocket in the room,
but close your eyes.

Now, you've been watching me
for about 30 seconds.

With your eyes closed, what am I wearing?

Make your best guess.

What color is my shirt?
What color is my tie?

Now open your eyes.

Show of hands, were you right?

Interesting, isn't it?

Some of us are a little bit
more perceptive than others, it seems.

But I have a different theory
about that model of attention.

They have fancy models of attention,
Posner's trinity model of attention.

For me, I like to think of it very
simple, like a surveillance system.

It's kind of like you have
all these fancy sensors,

and inside your brain
is a little security guard.

For me, I like to call him Frank.

So Frank is sitting at a desk.

He's got lots of cool
information in front of him,

high-tech equipment, he's got cameras,

he's got a little phone
that he can pick up, listen to the ears,

all these senses, all these perceptions.

But attention is what steers
your perceptions,

it's what controls your reality.

It's the gateway to the mind.

If you don't attend to something,
you can't be aware of it.

But ironically, you can attend
to something without being aware of it.

For example, the cocktail effect:

You're in a party, having
conversations with someone,

and yet you can recognize your name

without realizing
you were listening to that.

Now, for my job, I have to play
with techniques to exploit this,

to play with your attention
as a limited resource.

So if I could control
how you spend your attention,

if I could maybe steal your attention
through a distraction.

Now, instead of doing it like misdirection

and throwing it off to the side,

instead, what I choose
to focus on is Frank,

to be able to play with the Frank
inside your head,

your security guard,

and get you, instead of focusing
on your external senses,

just to go internal for a second.

So if I ask you to access
a memory, like, what is that?

What just happened? Do you have a wallet?

Do you have an American Express
in your wallet?

And when I do that,
your Frank turns around.

He accesses the file.
He has to rewind the tape.

What's interesting is,
he can't rewind the tape

at the same time that he's trying
to process new data.

This sounds like a good theory,

but I could talk for a long time,
tell you lots of things,

and a portion of them may be true,

but I think it's better if I tried
to show that to you here live.

If I come down, I'm going
to do a bit of shopping.

Just hold still where you are.

Hello, how are you?
It's lovely to see you.

Wonderful job onstage.

Lovely watch, it doesn't
come off very well.

Do you have a ring as well?

Good. Just taking inventory.
You're like a buffet.

Hard to tell where to start,
so many great things.

Hi, how are you? Good to see you.

Hi, sir, could you stand up, please?
Just right where you are.

You're married,
you follow directions well.

Nice to meet you, sir.

You don't have a lot in your pockets.
Anything down here?

Hopefully so. Have a seat. There you go.
You're doing well.

Hi, sir, how are you?

Good to see you, sir.
You have a ring, a watch.

Do you have a wallet on you? Joe: I don't.

AR: Well, we'll find one for you.
Come on up this way, Joe.

Give Joe a round of applause.
Come on up, Joe. Let's play a game.

(Applause)

AR: Pardon me.

I don't think I need this clicker anymore.

Thank you very much. I appreciate that.

Come on up to the stage, Joe.
Let's play a little game now.

Anything in your front pockets?

J: Money.

AR: Money! All right, let's try that.

Can you stand right over this way for me?

Turn around and, let's see,

if I give you something
that belongs to me,

this is just something I have,

a poker chip.

Hold out your hand for me.

Watch it closely.

This is a task for you to focus on.

You have your money in your front pocket?

J: Yup.
AR: Good.

I won't put my hand in your pocket.
I'm not ready for that kind of commitment.

Once a guy had a hole in his pocket,

and that was rather traumatizing for me.

I wanted his wallet,
he gave me his number.

Big miscommunication.

(Laughter)

Let's do this simply.
Squeeze your hand tight.

Do you feel the poker chip in your hand?

J: I do.

AR: Would you be surprised
if I took it? Say yes.

J: Very.
AR: Good.

Open your hand. Thank you very much.

I'll cheat if you give me a chance.

Make it harder for me. Just use your hand.

Grab my wrist, but squeeze, squeeze firm.

Did you see it go? Joe: No.

AR: No, it's not here. Open your hand.

While we're focused on the hand,
it's sitting on your shoulder.

Go ahead and take it off.

Now, let's try that again.

Hold your hand out flat. Open it up.

Put your hand up a little bit higher,
but watch it close.

If I did it slowly,
it'd be on your shoulder.

(Laughter)

Joe, we're going to keep doing
this till you catch it.

You'll get it eventually.
I have faith in you.

Squeeze firm.
You're human, you're not slow.

It's back on your shoulder.

You were focused on your hand, distracted.

While you were watching,
I couldn't get your watch off.

Yet you had something inside your pocket.

Do you remember what it was?

J: Money.

AR: Check your pocket. Is it still there?

(Laughter)

Oh, there it was. Put it away.

We're just shopping.

This trick's more about the timing.

I'm going to try to push it
inside your hand.

Put your other hand on top, would you?

It's amazingly obvious now, isn't it?

Looks a lot like the watch
I was wearing, doesn't it?

(Laughter) (Applause)

J: That's pretty good.
AR: Oh, thanks.

(Applause)

But it's only a start.
Let's try it a little bit differently.

Hold your hands together.
Your other hand on top.

If you're watching this little token,

this obviously has become
a little target, like a red herring.

If we watch this kind of close,
it looks like it goes away.

It's not back on your shoulder.

It falls out of the air,
lands right back in the hand.

Did you see it go?

Yeah, funny. We've got a little guy.
He's union, works up there all day.

If I do it slowly it goes straight away,
it lands by your pocket.

Is it in this pocket, sir?

Don't reach in your pocket.
That's a different show.

(Squeaking)

That's rather strange.
They have shots for that.

Can I show them? Rather bizarre.
Is this yours, sir?

I have no idea how that works.
We'll send that over there.

I need help with this one.

Step over this way for me.

Don't run away. You had something
down by your pants pocket.

I was checking mine.
I couldn't find everything,

but I noticed you had something here.

Can I feel the outside for a moment?

Down here I noticed this.
Is this something of yours, sir?

I have no idea. That's a shrimp.

J: Yeah. I'm saving it for later.

AR: You've entertained
all of these people in a wonderful way,

better than you know.

So we'd love to give you this
lovely watch as a gift.

(Laughter)

Hopefully it matches his taste.

We have a couple of other things,

a little bit of cash.

And we have a few other things,

these all belong to you,

along with a big round of applause
from all your friends.

(Applause)

Joe, thank you very much.

(Applause)

(Applause ends)

So, same question I asked you before,

but this time you don't have
to close your eyes.

What am I wearing?

Audience: Oh!

(Laughter)

(Hesitant applause)

(Applause ends)

Attention is a powerful thing.

Like I said, it shapes your reality.

So, I guess I'd like to pose
that question to you.

If you could control somebody's attention,

what would you do with it?

Thank you.

(Applause)