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Boosted by glyph ("Glyph"):
dpnash@c.im ("David Nash") wrote:
@glyph Found it. Page 92 in my copy, in the chapter "Magic and Paraphysics". The context was the 1970s "paraphysics" fad, where a bunch of people doing what were literal magic tricks managed to fool a lot of people, including a lot of scientists:
"Any magician will tell you that scientists are the easiest persons in the world to fool. It is not hard to understand why. In their laboratories the equipment is just what it seems.... But the methods of magic are irrational and totally outside a scientist's experience. The general public has never understood this. Most people assume that if a man has a brilliant mind, he is qualified to detect fraud. This is untrue. Unless he has been thoroughly trained in the underground art of magic, and knows its peculiar properties, he is easier to deceive than a child. "
Gardner was an amateur magician, and he did a lot to popularize the work of famous magician-turned-skeptic James Randi, who spent most of his life unearthing magic-tricks-as-fraud.
The part "Most people assume that if a man has a brilliant mind, he is qualified to detect fraud. This is untrue." is what has stuck with me.