I used to perform an effect based on illustration "focused intent" leading to "natural innate abilities," etc.

I would have three purses/wallets available and announce that one held a dollar bill and the other something different.
A spectator would attempt to use their psychic skill to determine which held the dollar and chose the right one. Applause!
Then I would reveal that the the other purses held a $5 and $20 bill. Laughter and an easy shift to another effect with good audience participation.

I recently did this for a small group. The spec angerly claimed that I had cheated him. Several observers agreed.

Is this another sign of cultural de-evolution? A product of entitlement? What?

Do any here have a similar experience? Why would someone get a free dollar and feel cheated?

There is always an issue when it comes to Bank Nite routines involving money. If you allow people to play a game for money, they anticipate winning. Maybe you can change things so the participant wins the dollar while the other two purses hold insignificant prizes?

Following on from Phileman's observation, you can use phony ($10,000? $1,000,000?) bills for the two "insignificant" prizes. Then you can act as though you managed to keep the big money for yourself, while still allowing them to walk away with the only prize of real worth.

This is an interesting question, because I have experienced this same type of participant disappointment/feeling cheated. However, I don't think this has to do with entitlement or cultural de-evolution necessarily, but I do think there has been a real notable shift in the cultural mindset around this type of magic; especially in regards to people's perspective on opportunities to win something, and even more so when it comes to money. There may be a few factors at play here, but since I don't know the circumstances of the participant or audience, I'll have to assume they were average people and not exceptionally wealthy. If that is the case, I think the main factors worth considering here are the perceived "unfairness" of the opportunity and the prize.

In this case, from their perspective, I could understand how they may feel you misled them. You supposedly offered them an opportunity to win something, that's true, but you did so by knowingly depriving them of the opportunity to win more by intentionally withholding information and/or manipulating the outcome. That's possibly how they see it. And when you consider how most people in the US (I'm assuming this was in the US because you used $, but this could apply to most places at the moment) are affected financially by the current economy, things like inflation raising prices, unlivable minimum wages, employers reluctant to meet the cost of living, corporate profits at an all time high while wages stagnate. A lot of people already feel cheated everyday, so I think their reaction of feeling cheated here starts to make more sense. Opportunities to get something for nothing are becoming rarer in life. Opportunities to win and get ahead by chance are becoming rarer. People feel like the odds are already stacked against them. So when people are offered an opportunity to win something for nothing, and apparently through their own intuition, they naturally get excited. Also quite naturally though, when people find out that the opportunity they thought they had to win was actually quite a meager option compared to the other choices they had less information about, or feeling like they were manipulated in order to minimize their winnings, it's going to be a disappointment.

I know some people would say "but they still got a prize just for playing!" Well, as for the "prize" itself, we must consider the current value of a dollar today. What can you actually buy for a dollar? Realistically? Nothing. Maybe a bit of candy or chapstick if it's marked down on sale? Air in your tires at the gas station? The dollar doesn't go far on its own. A dollar is far less of a prize than it used to be. Even a vending machine prices start at $1.25-$1.50 these days. So the $5 and the $20 have real potential spending power and perceived value to them, while the dollar simply does not. And I'm sure some people's first thought when reading this will be "well it's one more dollar than they had before," or "a dollar is still money, they can add it to the money they already have." That kind of mentality is what people might expect to hear from a boss at work who's maximizing productivity and profits while only offering workers a $0.25 cent raise from minimum wage. With this effect, as with life, they will fixate on what could've been, what they could've earned, what they should've chosen, and if their conclusion is that you manipulated the outcome to deprive them of the greater value, they will likely feel like you cheated them out of the better opportunity for the sake of entertainment. I could see how that may leave a bad taste.

From my own experience, I can say that I noticed these types of effects where 'the participant gets a door prize but the performer keeps the true grand prize' have become more underwhelming for participants as the years have gone by. Once I noticed it, I started to avoid any effects that are essentially "participant could've had more if they chose better" as the outcome altogether. There are better ways to play with people than to play on their financial desires/hopes/expectations. Currently, as a rule, I only use money in magic to exceed expectations, so if I do any effect where I increase the value of money, it's for the purpose of using it or giving it away. For example, Extreme Burn is how I tip people. I pull out the packet of ones, they're a little disappointed since they think they're only gonna get a dollar or two, but oh wait, what's that? [MAGIC] Here's a $20. I've exceeded their expectations and they are much happier and having fun with the magic that rewarded them. Or take the classic TT bill sw*tch. If I ask for a dollar, it's because I'm going to do some magic with it. But I want to reward them for taking a chance on someone strange with their dollar, taking a chance on a magic trick; after all, they didn't know what was going to happen. I could've vanished it, destroyed it with fire, made it appear in a gott damm lemon soaking wet with sour juice. They took a chance on my magic by volunteering the funds, so I'm going to reward that decision by turning it into a $10 or a $20. These ideas are obviously afforded by the privilege of having some disposable income to be generous with. I'm not wealthy by any means, but I am exceptionally choosey about my money magic moments, so I'm not breaking the bank personally, but the reactions they get when I do perform them, to me, are totally worth the cost.

I know I strayed a bit from the original effect you asked about, but I hope that offered some alternative perspectives worth considering! I wouldn't worry too much, but I would suggest that for this particular effect, you should focus on empowering the participant. You could increase the denomination of the prize to a $5 and, as Philemon and Doug suggested, make the other 2 purses worthless (like an expired fast food coupon and a wallet size headshot of Humphrey Bogart), so that they feel like they won something of value through their own intuition, maybe with some help from the performer . Just something to consider. This was a good opportunity to analyze the effect and see if there is room for improvement, thank you for bringing it to the forum for discussion. I hope you get the fun reactions you're looking for next time!

In his ESP Opener from Penguin, Banachek has a good way of pre-framing the potential prize in such a way that it takes the sting out of the inevitable loss. This could be applied to a Bank Nite routine as well.

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Osterlind uses scratch-offs which is what I would do

I close such effect with a win-lose-win after all sequence. The spec wins a $2.00 bill. The other wallets each contain a $20.00 bill-----in Monopoly money. The spec wins and people enjoy it.

George

Great responses and a lot of valuable help.
For me, any such effect can be a Prelude Framing event. What I learn from audience reactions directs where I go next -
shift, expand or stop. This is especially valuable when know little of the group's experience or expectations of "notions paranormal."
As I never perform for pay, giving away any real money is a problem - and I do not want the focus to be one money at all,
but folks accept that thinking about money provides a good focus of intent.

What to do? I do not want any specific reaction such as "fun,' but certainly not "I was cheated."

I do not give presentation to "entertain," but to create conditions under which each participant
can walk away with a story of "A real experience of the paranormal." This may no longer be a good effect for that as a Prelude.

You'all have provided food for thought ...

I am leaning towards announcing that one purse holds a guaranteed value of $1.00, one holds an item of less value and one with possible greater value.
They can focus on the "sure thing" or "take a chance" on something greater. The theme would be using latent innate ability to pursue a sure future,
or to abandon any such skill to whimsey. If they choose to focus on the dollar they are rewarded for their psychic ability. If they choose "chance,"
they get the photo and miss both the dollar and lottery ticket. Either way, I can shift to divination, telepathy or a different exploratory demonstration.

You can also use one of those fake "motion picture" 100 dollar bills that look very real until you have them in your hand. I use it for a 50/50 two envelope choice. One has a slip of paper which says whatever you like. The other has the fake 100 dollar bill in it. Perform the effect as usual, then when you pull the 100 out from your envelope, it drives the point home that you won the game. Then hand them the 100 and tell them that they can have it anyway. As they take it you can say, "It's not real money anyway". Or as I sometimes say as I reveal the 100 ... I tear it in half and toss it stating it wasn't real to begin with. It's funny and it takes the sting out when they realize they lost nothing.

Well....

Make it part of the presentation. Just say:

Yes of course I cheated. but that perfectly shows the psychological effect of relativity and comparison thinking.
Right at the beginning you thought 1$ would be the highest price.
And when you won you were really happy.

But as soon as I showed you the other notes your prespective shifted.
Now 1$ was the lowest price and you are disappointed.
That shows you value the exact same thing 1$ differently. Depending only on the circumstacnes.



This is exactly what is used in marketing and advertising known also as the anchoring effect. If the first product you see in a shop is very expensive everything else feels cheaper and so you sepnd more money.
Now that you know that try to not fall into that psychological bias.

Thank you and good night.



*leave....