Over the past 7 decades, researchers have examined the personalities of creative individuals across various fields, including architecture, art, and science, for instance. These studies have highlighted distinct conative and cognitive traits associated with each of these different domains. But what about the creators in relatively unexplored domains such as magic for example? Do magicians present personality traits distinct from those of the general population? In this exploratory study, we conducted a comparative analysis of the personality traits of 60 magicians and 60 nonmagicians assessing the Big Five traits, creative self and narcissism. The findings indicate that magicians score higher on openness, extraversion, agreeableness, creative self, and narcissism compared to nonmagicians. Furthermore, a distinction was made between magicians based on their years of practice. Results indicate that the most experienced magicians scored higher on openness compared to less experienced magicians. In addition, we sought to predict creative self within the entire sample, encompassing both magicians and nonmagicians. The results revealed that openness is the only predictor of creative self. Consequently, this study highlights the significance of openness in the field of magic. Our results could have practical implications, particularly in the implementation of magic-based interventions aimed at developing certain personality traits such as openness.
