You're looking at Less Wrong's discussion board. This includes all posts, including those that haven't been promoted to the front page yet. For more information, see About Less Wrong.

Manfred comments on Fallacies of reification - the placebo effect - Less Wrong Discussion

20 Post author: Morendil 13 September 2012 07:03AM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (55)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: Manfred 13 September 2012 10:00:29PM *  0 points [-]

To repost skeptical lurker's link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/dec/22/placebo-effect-patients-sham-drug

The placebo effect could be driven by mechanisms unrelated to whether or not you believe you're being treated and still mean pretty much the same thing - similar to priming, it could just be that mentioning the right words before giving people a sugar pill is enough, you don't have to actually make them believe you're giving them a painkiller.