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gwern comments on Fallacies of reification - the placebo effect - Less Wrong Discussion
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But is he wrong? You earlier agreed that many different effects & issues combined to yield a real placebo effect, and if mwengler expects the ibuprofen to work, then doesn't this satisfy your criteria by neatly falling into one of those effects like subject-expectancy effect?
That depends on what relief he expects (other than analgesia), which his comment didn't specify.
Hypothetically: suppose I sprain an ankle, and take ibuprofen with the theory that in addition to relieving the pain, ibuprofen will make the ankle heal faster. I may well convince myself that this is the case, and be inclined to report as much to anyone who asks (that's the expectancy effect in action) - but I have no serious grounds to believe that the ibuprofen has in fact caused function to be restored to my ankle. In fact, my false belief may well make things worse, by encouraging me to put go for my next run sooner than I would otherwise have.
If that's the kind of thing meant, then yes, that's poor decision-making.