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MixedNuts comments on Belief in Belief - Less Wrong
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Belief in disbelief:
— Niels Bohr
(Note: This is often retold with Bohr himself as the one with the horseshoe, but this quote appears to be the authentic one.)
I wonder how common that is, believing that you don't believe something but acting in a way that implies more belief in it than you acknowledge. One other example I experienced recently: For whatever reason, my mom had a homeopathic cold remedy lying around. (I think a friend gave it to her.) She and I both had colds recently, so she suggested I try some of it. The thing is, she gives full assent to my explanations of why homeopathy is both experimentally falsified and physical nonsense; she even appeared to believe me when I looked at the ingredients and dilution factors and determined that the bottle essentially contained water, sugar, and purple food colouring. But even after that, she still said we may as well try it because it couldn't hurt. True, it couldn't hurt... but "it can't hurt" doesn't sound like really understanding that the bottle you're holding consists of water, sugar, and purple.
Another instance may be former theists who still act in some ways as though they believe in God (an interesting mirror image of current theists who don't act as though they really believe what they profess to believe), though in my experience many of them consider it to be bad habit they're trying to break, so I'd be less inclined to call it belief in [dis]belief, I'd take that as something more akin to akrasia.
The placebo effect is weakened but doesn't disappear if you know it's a placebo.
Citation needed :)
Here's a study (honestly labeled placebo vs nothing) for irritable bowel syndrome.
I originally got it from a Science et Vie article on a study with four conditions (labeled as placebo vs as treatment; placebo vs treatment), can't remember what for.
I remember this from earlier, see my response in that thread, and my links to Silberman and Lipson.
The study may well be measuring patients' tendency to want to fulfill doctors' expectations rather than any effect on the actual symptoms.
I agree this study is a bit silly. I'll try to dig up the one I saw, but promise nothing.
Agree that the placebo effect may contain lying to doctors. There may also be some regression to the mean - people who are too healthy are excluded from the study, so when everyone moves at random the ones sick enough to be selected get healthier.
My understanding is that the studies establishing a placebo effect were controlled in a way that'd rule out regression to the mean as a cause of the perceived improvements. Lying to doctors does sound plausible, though.