Misdirection

[Sarah]

Having a boner for no apparent reason, or perhaps for the wrong reason.

[Tina]

[Misdirection] is sometimes defined “as the intentional [deflection] of attention for the purpose of disguise” ([Sharpe], 1988, p. 47); as such, it would encompass anything that prevents you from noticing the secret method (i.e., the technique used to bring about the observed effect). It has also been suggested that [misdirection] is not simply about directing attention away from the cause of a magic effect, but toward something interesting, which again prevents the [spectator] from noticing the method (Wonder, 1994).
Whilst some misdirection principles involve manipulating what people attend to (and thus, what they see), “real misdirection deceives not only the eye of the spectator, but his [mind as well]” (Leech, 1960, p. 6), More precisely, successful misdirection might manipulate not only peoples perceptions, but their memory for what happened, or their reasoning about how the effect was done. A distraction that prevents people from experiencing an effect—whether by manipulating perception, memory, or reasoning—is clearly futile ([Lamont] and [Wiseman], 1999). Misdirection is also ineffective if it allows people to see (or work out) the method, since a key aspect of magic is the witnessing of an event that is apparently impossible. If people become aware of the misdirection, the impossible becomes possible, and the magic disappears (Pareras, 2011).

[Vania]

The action or process of directing someone to the wrong place or in the wrong direction.