After completing his PhD, he became Britain's first professor in the public understanding of psychology at the
University of Hertfordshire.
Psychological research Wiseman critically examines and frequently debunks unusual phenomena, including reports of
paranormal phenomena. He is a fellow of the
Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI). His research has been published in numerous academic journals, reported at various conferences, and featured on television. Wiseman has studied the principles of good and bad
luck, publishing the results in the self-help book
The Luck Factor. He showed that both good and bad luck result from measurable habits; for example, lucky people, by expecting good luck, might expend more effort in their endeavours, resulting in more success, reinforcing their belief in good luck. Lucky people are outgoing and observant and therefore have many more chance encounters than unlucky people, each of which could bring a lucky opportunity. Moreover, lucky people are more likely to look on the bright side of 'bad' encounters. In a mental exercise describing being shot during a bank robbery, lucky people considered themselves lucky not to have been killed while unlucky people considered themselves unlucky to have been shot.
Public engagement Wiseman prefers to make discuss, research and think about the implications of his work; instead of talking directly about eyewitness testimony in law, he would set something up that looked like it, such as his colour-changing card trick. In 2001, Wiseman led
LaughLab, an international experiment to find the
world's funniest joke. The winning joke described a caller to emergency services who shoots his friend who has collapsed to comply with the instruction "First, let's make sure he's dead". In 2013 Richard Wiseman became the first guest curator at Edinburgh's International Science Festival. In 2014 he does a repeat of his 'Beginners Guide to' but this time with 3 different talks: • "Richard Wiseman's Beginners Guide to... Fermat's Last Theorem" with writer and broadcaster
Simon Singh. • "Richard Wiseman's Beginners Guide to... Astrobiology" with
Imperial College's Dr
Zita Martins. • "Richard Wiseman's Beginners Guide to... the Earth" with earth scientist and broadcaster
Hermione Cockburn (
BBC). Wiseman has also become a content creator on YouTube after uploading a video of the colour changing card trick in 2007 that has 6. 5 million views as of April 2020. He is best known for his "Bets You Will Always Win" series, which has amassed over 60 million views throughout 10 videos. On 7 January 2014, Wiseman uploaded a video to a new channel called "59 Seconds" in promotion of his book of the same name. Wiseman is a patron of
Humanists UK and appeared in the
Nine Lessons and Carols for Godless People Christmas stage show organised by the
New Humanist. He is also a Distinguished Supporter of
Humanist Society Scotland. In 2017 Wiseman interviewed
Richard Dawkins at CSIcon Las Vegas 2017 covering topics on
evolution,
extra terrestrials and god.
Edinburgh Secret Society The Edinburgh Secret Society organises events for those of a curious disposition. These include verbal, theatrical and experimental presentations intended to inform, entertain and bewilder. This group, as the name states, tends to be low key and has appeared in very few news outlets. The Society motto is 'The king cannot be saved, the king cannot make custard', which is one of many things the group won't openly say the meaning of. It is run by
Peter Lamont, friend and colleague, and Richard Wiseman having events involving The Filmhouse, the
British Science Association, Edinburgh's World of Illusions, and The
Edinburgh International Science Festival. Through the Edinburgh Secret Society Wiseman has found a new following, hosting evenings of irreverent talks and entertainment on topics including self-help and dying. In February 2011 they staged 'An Evening of Death' in A Victorian Anatomy Theatre at the
University of Edinburgh, an event that sold out its 250 tickets within minutes. In 2011, the first section of a collaborative story at Libboo in an attempt to produce a full-length novel in two months. The final result of this experiment, was a novel called,
Paradox: The Curious Life, and Mysterious Death, of Mr Joseph Wheeler.
Focus on the paranormal Wiseman is known for his critical examination and frequent debunking of unusual phenomena, including reports of
paranormal phenomena. He is a fellow of the
Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI). was featured in the Discovery Channel documentary,
The Girl with X-Ray Eyes. Wiseman has published studies on
anomalistic psychology and the
psychology of paranormal belief. He is the author of the book titled ''
Paranormality: Why We See What Isn't There'' (2011) which takes a psychological approach to paranormal phenomena. The book offers its readers tools to investigate paranormal claims using
QR Codes, which Wiseman saw as "exciting use of new media" The second issue features the
Fox sisters and
séances. In 2022 the series was nominated for "Best Limited Series" at the
Eisner Awards. The series was collected into a single volume and published by Vanishing Inc in January 2023.
Dream: ON The App Wiseman launched the Dream: ON App at the
Edinburgh International Science Festival 2012. It is developed and maintained by YUZA, a mobile experience team based in London. The app is powered by an engine which constantly monitors and adjusts the behaviour of Dream: ON; optimising the experience for the user. When the user enters the
rapid eye movement (REM) stage of sleep where dreaming is most common, the app delivers unique audio soundscapes which the subconscious is shown to respond to.
"We have created a new way of carrying out mass participation experiments. We still know relatively little about the science of dreaming and this app may provide a real breakthrough in changing how we dream, and record and track those dreams." – Professor Richard Wiseman The app is also a social experiment: in the morning it presents users with a graph of their movement during the night, allows users to tag any friends who appeared in their dreams via Facebook and invites them to post a short description of their dreams to an experimental "Dream Bank", creating the world's largest dream experiment.
The Good Magic Awards In collaboration with the
Good Thinking Society, Wiseman set up The Good Magic Awards. These awards recognize and reward performers that use magic tricks to improve the lives of people in disadvantaged groups, charities, community groups, hospital patients, and others struggling with physical and psychological challenges. The awards were announced on March 17, 2020, and were awarded for the first time on May 5, 2020.
Awards in 2011, with
Phil Plait and
Joe Nickell •
CSICOP Public Education in Science Award, 2000 •
British Science Association Joseph Lister Award, 2002 • In 2016 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Science by
Abertay University in Dundee. • The Masters Of Magic have announced that Wiseman will be awarded the
Golden Grolla award for his work in psychology and illusion at their 2020 convention •
Royal Society David Attenborough Award and Lecture 2023.
Books • Wiseman, R. & Morris, R. L. (1995).
Guidelines for Testing Psychic Claimants. Hatfield: University of Hertfordshire Press (US edition: Amherst: Prometheus Press). • Milton, J. & Wiseman, R. (1997).
Guidelines for Extrasensory Perception Research. Hatfield: University of Hertfordshire Press. • Wiseman, R. (1997).
Deception and self-deception: Investigating Psychics. Amherst: Prometheus Press • Lamont, P. & Wiseman, R. (1999).
Magic in Theory: an introduction to the theoretical and psychological elements of conjuring. Hatfield: University of Hertfordshire Press (US edition: Hermetic Press). • Wiseman, R. (2002). ''Laughlab: The Scientific Search For The World's Funniest Joke''. London: Random House • Wiseman, R. (2003).
The Luck Factor. London: Random House • Wiseman, R. (2004).
Did you spot the gorilla? How to recognise hidden opportunities in your life. London: Random House • Wiseman, R. & Watt, C. (2005).
Parapsychology. London: Ashgate International Library of Psychology. Series Editor, Prof. David Canter • Wiseman, R. (2007).
Quirkology. London: Pan Macmillan • Wiseman, R. (2009).
59 Seconds: Think a Little, Change a Lot. London: Pan Macmillan • Wiseman, R. (2011). ''
Paranormality: Why we see what isn't there''. London: Pan Macmillan • Wiseman, R. (2012).
Rip it up: The radically new approach to changing your life. London: Macmillan • Wiseman, R. (2014).
Night School: Wake up to the power of sleep . London: Macmillan • Wiseman, R. (2018).
How to remember things. London: Macmillan • Wiseman, R. (2019).
Shoot for the Moon. London: Quercus Editions Ltd • Worth, R., Collver, J. & Wiseman, R. (2020).
Hocus Pocus: Science, Magic and Mystery. (Issues 1-5) Self-published • Copperfield, D., Wiseman, R. & Britland, D. (2021). ''David Copperfield's History of Magic''. Simon & Schuster • Worth, R., Collver, J. & Wiseman, R. (2023).
Hocus Pocus: The Complete Collection. Vanishing Inc. • Wiseman, R. (2023). "Magic". UK: University of Hertfordshire. Emerald Publishing Limited. ==References==