Alice Pailhès

Doctor in Psychology | Mentalist Magician | Speaker | Author

Dr. Alice Pailhès is a doctor in psychology, magician, and researcher. She invites her audience to experience a disturbing realization: discovering how much our perception of reality — and our decisions — can be influenced without our awareness. Through magic demonstrations grounded in cognitive sciences, she does not merely explain the workings of the human mind: she makes it visible, tangible, and experiential. What you thought was obvious becomes uncertain. What you believed you could control… may be much less so. Her lectures create a unique moment that is both fascinating, interactive, and profoundly impactful, where everyone directly experiences the biases, illusions, and invisible mechanisms that shape our behaviors. She works with both companies and the general public on key issues such as leadership, decision-making, perception, and the influence of beliefs on performance. Her approach not only allows for a better understanding of these mechanisms but also teaches how to work with them rather than against them. Her work has been published in international scientific journals and featured in media such as the Financial Times, Wired, and the BBC. She is the author of The Psychology of Magic and The Art of Being Fooled (MIT Press, forthcoming in 2026), and regularly speaks at international conferences, including TED / TEDx.