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I was wondering if certain cards are thought of more than others?

If anyone would like to gather some data for me when challenging specs to "Think of a card.." or if you have any anecdotal "evidence" or insights into selection patterns I'd be interested!

Dunno where I heard this but I remember something about the queen of hearts being quite a popular choice (especially with the females )

Then there's the obvious ace of spades (and poss ace of hearts close behind)

With women, the queen of hearts is the most commonly thought of card. I would guess from my own experience (and I do a routine involving a thought of card all the time) 50% of women will freely choose the queen of hearts. Of the remaining 50% of women, a further 25% will choose another heart card with the 7 of hearts being the most favourite followed by the 3 and the ace. The remaining 25% will choose a completely random card, although it is likely to be a diamond. Rare indeed is the female that will choose a spade or a club.

Men are a lot more tricky. The ace of spades is not as popular as is generaly presumed. Perhaps 15% of men would choose the ace of spades. The jack of spades is more popular. Really, when it comes to blokes they really could choose any card! Very frustrating.

I always tell my specs not to choose the ace of spades or the queen of hearts simply because they are the most popular choices, and the other specs will exclaim "But I could have guessed that!" if the volunteer does happen to choose the ace of spades or queen of hearts.

Hope that helps. My advice is always choose a female spec.

themagicwand wrote:With women, the queen of hearts is the most commonly thought of card. I would guess from my own experience (and I do a routine involving a thought of card all the time) 50% of women will freely choose the queen of hearts. Of the remaining 50% of women, a further 25% will choose another heart card with the 7 of hearts being the most favourite followed by the 3 and the ace. The remaining 25% will choose a completely random card, although it is likely to be a diamond. Rare indeed is the female that will choose a spade or a club.

Men are a lot more tricky. The ace of spades is not as popular as is generaly presumed. Perhaps 15% of men would choose the ace of spades. The jack of spades is more popular. Really, when it comes to blokes they really could choose any card! Very frustrating.

I always tell my specs not to choose the ace of spades or the queen of hearts simply because they are the most popular choices, and the other specs will exclaim "But I could have guessed that!" if the volunteer does happen to choose the ace of spades or queen of hearts.

Hope that helps. My advice is always choose a female spec.

50% choose queen of hearts?? Not true where I live! Of couse if you want them freely to choose queen of hearts you can increase the likelihood they choose that card by applying some of the standard subbleties (body language, tone of voice etc), but I have NEVER seen or heard any who could get women to choose a specific card (lets say queen of hearts) 50% of the times. It can be done by fanning out the cards and display the cards in an apparent fair way like briefly described in "expert at the card table". But forcing a card this way is really a different issue.

If you decide which individual to choose I find that a certain type of 'cooperative' and positive spectations (usually male) very frequently choose a 7. Most frequently its a club or diamond and most rarely a spade.

The 50% you mension also contradicts what I seem to remember what Dai Vernons said on his video series. I never heard anyone make such a claim before. Do you perform for the same two people all the time

It's my experience, that the card you choose depends on how you ask for it as well as what's gone before.

I did three mental card force tricks for my girfriend. I got them all right bar being out by one spot with one of them. I then proceeded to predict "think of a card" three times in a row.

I think it's all context.

I've found that asking with reference to other cards also works well. FOr instance. Think of a card, not the ace of space, everyone chooses an ace is a good force. It leaves you with about six choices. Depending on where you've been before, can land on one.

This sounds a bit magical for the Dove's Head

I'm not sure that it really matters. If you need the spec to select a particular card then you force it rather than leaving it to chance. If they pick a random card from a deck then they just pick it without thinking about what card they are going to end up with.

Read Pure Effect and see how using an open guess question can actually strengthen your performance! No need to rush to a force if fate and sociological odds can play in your favour!

To add to what's been said already, there's also very nice section on psychological forces in Jones' "Encyclopedia of Impromptu Card Forces", along with a section at the back on open predictions.

stepSeven wrote:If anyone would like to gather some data for me when challenging specs to "Think of a card.." or if you have any anecdotal "evidence" or insights into selection patterns I'd be interested!

That sort of information can cost you a lot of money

Maybe the "50% of women choose the queen of hearts" statement was a little rash. However after reflection I would state that it is my experience that between 25% - 50% of women will choose the said card, freely and without prompting.

To over simplify things, the more middle aged a woman is (and this sounds terribly sexist as though I'm discussing a different species, but it is just plain facts), the more likely she is to choose a heart. However if the woman is a teenager with her belly hanging out and clutching desperately at her mobile (cellphone to our American cousins), then there is just as much chance of her choosing a diamond as a heart (it's the bling culture I'm afraid). A lot depends on reading the person correctly.

I was pondering all this as I strolled around my rain-sodden estate this afternoon, and it suddenly dawned on me that the percentages of women choosing certain cards that I experience does not automatically apply to all magicians. I'd always assumed it would be a blanket percentage that would apply to all - but no, surely a large factor depends on the magician himself.

If (like me) you are an attractive magi with smouldering come-to-bed eyes, then it would stand to reason that the card I experience the most is the queen of hearts (ie they want to mother me and/or have sex with me). However if you're more homely looking than me, you may experience a whole different set of cards being chosen. Just watch out if your specs keep choosing a club.

While I make the above point in a jokey manner, I do think there may be some sense to it. It certainly makes sense to me, and would explain why I get the high percentage of queen of hearts while soren riis experiences totally different results . Thoughts?

Ok I'll come clean with this - I was hoping to carry a small selection of cards on my personage (say 5 for convenient pocket arrangement), then pull out the relevant card for an aha! moment if one of these cards were selected, failing that go into a routine.

I know there are other ways of doing this, like having lots of cards in my man-bag, limiting the specs choice, improving my odds with "qualifiers" (a letter from my granny ) or just good old fashioned jedi mind control.

But I was wondering do 'we' select some cards more than others or is it a genuine random 'spread' (which I'm convinced it's not). One vibe I'm getting here is that demography has a lot to do with it - maybe I need one card per major demographic group (that'll be 52+jokers then)

It can be a culture thing too. I noticed that when I moved to Canada and asked people to think of a card the percentage of people who thought of the Ace of Spades went up dramatically in comparison to the result in Britain where there was far less frequency.

mark lewis wrote:It can be a culture thing too. I noticed that when I moved to Canada and asked people to think of a card the percentage of people who thought of the Ace of Spades went up dramatically in comparison to the result in Britain where there was far less frequency.

Maybe there are more Motorhead fans.

I always say the 4 of clubs if anyone wants to add that to their statistical data.

You could try using a bagshawe deck principle and unknowingly limit their choice and then appear to be amazing in your revelation.