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Strange subtleties of the Placebo Effect

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MilesAhead:
For a tried and true traditional example of the Placebo Effect(tm) just go to any barber shop and find a chair with a nearly bald guy.  Barbers did "air scissors" way before we ever did "air guitar."

Renegade:
That was very interesting.

What I find disturbing isn't "placebos", rather the general inability of people to "connect the dots" and follow the implications. e.g. "The Secret" and similar things. If you believe it, it will happen, etc. Skeptics generally jump on top of stuff like "The Secret" and lambaste it, but don't have a problem with placebos, which is pretty bad logic. What skeptics should be doing is... well... that's a bit long... Suffice it to say that most "skeptics" are most certainly NOT skeptics.

I'd like to see information that follows the implications for the placebo effect with respect to "self-help", religion, and spirituality. That would be interesting.

JavaJones:
"The Placebo Effect" is indeed fascinating, but there are several aspects to how it "works" which are important to consider, and highly relevant to the "skeptics" view.

At the simplest and most broad level, there is observer bias - the fact that you think something will or should happen will make you more likely to either see that thing, or to think something you did see *is* that thing (e.g. UFOs). This is what many skeptics hinge their arguments on and it's very valid in many cases when considering externally observable, real-world phenomena.

Then, there are the subtler internal effects generally particular to medical placebos, where actual physical effects can be seen, e.g. your cancer goes away (this stuff is the most interesting to me, because it actually affects reality). In many cases this is also mixed with some amount of observer bias, e.g. take a pain reliever placebo, "How do you feel?" "I feel much better."; the pain may not really be dulled at all in a physical sense, but since pain is perceived in the brain, the brain has the power to turn it off as well, in theory. But it also can have actual apparent physical effects.

So in regards to physical effects, from all I have seen these are confined to the individual physical body, which makes sense as we have a very complex body governed in large part by unconscious parts of our brain. The placebo effect may simply be linking conscious feeling with unconscious bodily action. Your immune system working better when you believe it will because you're not releasing stress hormones for example. That's all pretty much theoretical though as far as explanation goes, we don't really know how most of it works.

Definitely fascinating. And good video! The geographical differences were especially odd.

- Oshyan

MilesAhead:
Speaking of bias, let's not forget the fact that research often produces the results the sponsors paid for.  You're likely to get different research results on the harmful effect of tobacco if Philip Morris paid for it than if the research was sponsored by NORML.

Another "placebo effect" is the physician sticking a stethoscope on you can tapping around like it means something. In that vein I guess I'd agree with the video that the placebo is more effective if the gadget is bigger(e.g. MRI machine.)

cranioscopical:
Following the tenor of this discussion I'd like to point out another phenomenon, which is that the individual bursts into song. This is known as the Placebo Domingo Effect.

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