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I'm sure someone somewhere has researched this extensively, so is there a commonly agreed upon list of the most commonly chosen cards when you give a spectator a free choice to think of a card in their head?

I want to start opening by asking someone if they have a favourite playing card, and if not to just imagine what it might be if they did. I was thinking if I have two of the most common on top of the deck, and another two of the most common on the bottom I could turn that into a spooky reveal whenever I got a "hit".

I was thinking kind of along the lines of the most common on the very top for the most powerful reveal: "Really? Turn over the top card"

The next most common second from the top for a DL.

The third most common on the bottom: "Really. Turn the deck over" or even a hot-shot cut (maybe...)

The fourth most common for a glide.

I'm assuming the most common would be the queen of hearts (I've freaked people out before when they've named that card and it's under their placemat or inside their cat or something), but after that I'm not really sure which would be the most sensible other three. Any ideas, assuming this concept isn't some sort of exposure?

Insane, I just typed quite a lengthy reply and FireFox just closed completely. Just blugh. Everything gone.

Anywhom, my favourite card is the Two Of Spades. One of those things, ridiculous but I seem to always cut to it. And Yes I know I obviously don't, I just get a strong reaction when I do because it seems somehow more unlikely and ignore the times I do cut to it, but I like it anyway!

Second of all, not the greatest idea, but you could possibly have a crimp or some kind of locator card in the middle, with the 5th 6th 7th and 8th most likely cards above, on and below the locator card, and casually Pass or cut the cards and continue like it was top or bottom!

I think it has been discussed before, but...my most often chosen cards are:
Queen of Hearts by a mile.
Seven of Hearts.
Ace of Hearts.

The above three are the most popular particularly among females. Males tend to choose widely from all four suits, perhaps favouring hearts and spades. Jack of Spades is quite popular. Ace of Spades nowhere near as popular as you would have thought, but I always tell folk not to think of the ace of spades anyway (I tell them it's too popular even though it's not).

Hope this helps.

AS and QH are, I believe, the two most common but depending on what you say when you give them a 'free choice' you can certainly influence them. Derren Brown does a great demonstration of this on The Devils Picturebook.

I seem to recall Banachek covering this in his book psychological subtleties but it's been a while since I read it and I'm at work at the moment (working..... hard!) so I can't check.

It's interesting that you've got good reactions from that Queenie. Whenever I've tried hiding a queen of hearts somewhere and revealing it when named, it usually doesn't get a great reaction - I don't know if it's who I perform for or what, but it's very rare I'm performing for someone who isn't at least bright enough to realise that many girls will choose the Queen of Hearts.

That's why I keep KK in my wallet wherever I go

7H is always a good one to force by asking them to think of a card but to forget the picture cards as they can be confusing when trying to get a clear picture of them in the mind so to pick one of the others.....from 1 to 10.

queen of clubs wrote:I'm assuming the most common would be the queen of hearts (I've freaked people out before when they've named that card and it's under their placemat or inside their cat or something), but after that I'm not really sure which would be the most sensible other three. Any ideas, assuming this concept isn't some sort of exposure?

Well, AoS is most commonly liked card at 14.36%, then QoH at 7.99%. Third is the QoD with 4.35% and the AoH is 4th with 4.25%. but look at the steep drop in incidence. Fifth is usually the JoD (3.84%) but the percentages for the others are so similarly small that they're not statistically significant. The lowest is the 10oC with just 0.1%.

These figures are subject to change as more data comes in, but in my experience over the past 6 months, only by a fraction of a point. They're currently based on just under 1000 responses.

Abstracting out the common features of the top few cards, you can certainly say that the cards most likely to be chosen are at one end of the deck or other and stack accordingly.

I started keeping a record on this some years ago, but stopped after a few months. I can, however, still remember the top choices: for males it was the Jack of Spades and females the Queen of Hearts. I remember the top five or so cards for men was quite close, whereas for the women the QoH was the winner by a long way.

Good question, in my experience if you ask the spectator to name a card off the top of their head, these are usually some of the responses:

Men - Ace of Spades, 6 of Spades, King of Clubs, Jack of Spades,

Women - Queen of Hearts, Queen of Diamonds, 7 of Hearts, 9 of Hearts.

When you ask them to name a card, but include the words 'difficult' or 'not an obvious one' in the patter....these are usually some of the responses:

Men - 2 of Hearts, 4 of Clubs, 7 Diamonds, 9 of Diamonds

Women - 10 of Hearts, 3 of Diamonds, 7 Diamonds, 5 Clubs.

Im not sure if there ARE any 'common' cards which will always be choosen. Im sure many other magicians here will have had choices that turn out to be completly different from the ones I listed above.

As far as I know, there is no 100% fool proof system out there. Sadly, any spectator has the potential of being a heckler who could screw up this kind of effect if they wanted to. (No pleasing them is there?)

However, Strep is right - Derren Brown's "Devil's Picturebook" has some excellent psychological pointers and hints when trying to guess a spectators card, and even some psychological fo**es which gives the appearance of a fair selection in the spectators mind.

It would be intresting to hear your findings with this actually. Let us know how you get on. Good luck, and I hope you get to baffle some minds.

Doesn't really come as any surprise that men try and be awkward.

I did once do some research into this and had a big long list of who chose what, but I've managed to loose it. I find that the girlies will choose the queen of hearts. Ace of Spades I find that people very rarely choose, I think people think of it as too obvious.

One thing I've been playing around with lately is to ask the spec to think of a card. But then tell them that because you don't want the influenced by anything thing to clear their minds of what ever cards they're thinking of and name the first card that comes to mind. More often than not, you'll get a 7 named.

I remember from A level psychology that if you ask people to think of a number between one and ten then seven is the most common answer, but then obviously more factors in cards. I've used that before just as a starter for a joke and had pleasant results when good chunks had the same number.

Jobasha wrote:I remember from A level psychology that if you ask people to think of a number between one and ten then seven is the most common answer, but then obviously more factors in cards. I've used that before just as a starter for a joke and had pleasant results when good chunks had the same number.

Derren Brown had no such problem with his Hanging Bag trick in Covent Garden. He just said to the large crowd put your hand up if you chose 1, 2,4 etc" and we will see which is the largest percentage. Of course number 7 was!

I actually have tried this a couple times, it's usually the 5,6, or 7 of NOT hearts but diamonds. IF you say think of a card in a deck of cards but not a face card.

Ian the Magic-Ian wrote:I actually have tried this a couple times, it's usually the 5,6, or 7 of NOT hearts but diamonds. IF you say think of a card in a deck of cards but not a face card.

I find that diamonds are chosen by teenage girls with lots of "bling", and teeneage boys who want to be pimps or drug dealers.

Nice girls choose hearts.