Hello folks! Long time, no see here in the Bootcamp series, eh? Well, I think I’m feeling up to cranking out one about a cognitive bias we’ve probably all heard of: The Placebo Effect. So sit back, pop a couple of sugar pills for what ails ya and read on!
So, what IS the placebo effect. In medical terms, a placebo is something (a pill, a shot, etc.) that seems to be a real medical treatment, but isn’t. In treatment trials, usually one group of participants receives the real treatment and the other group receives a placebo — something that should not have any effect on the whatever the real treatment is supposed to affect.
(Quick sidebar on etymology: placebo comes from a Latin base meaning “shall be pleasing.” As far back as 1811, Hooper’s Medical Dictionary defined a placebo as “a drug that pleases rather than treats the patient.” So the term has been around a surprisingly long time in the modern context.)
Researchers can then compare the two groups to compare results, see if the real treatments has greater effect than the placebo, and check for side effects.
The placebo effect, though, is when people seem to get real benefits (or sometimes side effects) from a non-medical treatment. As an example, a subject complaining of sleeping problems could be given a placebo pill that has no medical benefits, but is told it’s a treatment for their problem. The subject then finds that the “treatment” fixes their problem, despite the fact that the pills should have no impact on it.
At it’s simplest, the placebo effect is our own minds tricking us that a treatment that isn’t real actually has an effect on us.
It’s actually a pretty fascinating bit of mind/body interaction. The mind believes that the treatment will have an effect, and the body responds, and that can include physical reactions like changing heart rates and blood pressure, releasing endorphins, and other such bodily reactions. Sometimes these reactions are actually what achieves the desired effect in treating the condition — but without actual drugs being involved. Other times, the mind deceives itself into believing that the treatment works and changes it’s perception of the “treated” condition. The mind is a powerful thing.
Interestingly, children seem to have a greater response to placebos than adults. I wonder if it has to do with the whole “trusting adults” thing while adults tend to have a more skeptical outlook. Also, the amount and type of placebo given can change the “effectiveness.” For example, a person told to take two pills twice a day tends to have a greater placebo response than one told to take one pill per day. And injections seem to garner a greater response than pills.
The placebo effect is why a lot of “folk treatments” seem to have an effect on those who believe in their effectiveness (and a lot of modern “Wooo” treatments — rub this crystal twice a day and your anxiety will disappear!) The power of the mind may alleviate some symptoms. However, it’s very very rare that it treats the underlying condition.
And that’s it for today folks! Hope those sugar pills did you some good. The placebo effect always makes me wonder how much painkillers like ibuprofen actually work versus how much our mind is doing the actual work. Ah, well. As long as it works. Oh, by the way, one last tidbit — sometimes placebos work even when the subject KNOWS it’s a placebo. It’s like the very action of taking a pill triggers the mind into thinking something is happening, even though consciously we know differently. The human mind is weird.
For those who’ve been missing my periodic Bootcamp diaries, or for those for whom this is the first one, if you like them, below is a complete list of links to previous ones. If I had to name a few personal favorites, I’d go with Sea Lioning, The Strawman, and Survivor Bias, but hopefully you’ll find them all worthwhile. Not sure at this point if I’ll be able to write any more (the last one was, believe it or not, last July!), but if I get the gumption I may try to get another one out.
Prior Bootcamp Installments
Logical Fallacies Bootcamp:
The Strawman
The Slippery Slope
Begging the Question
Poisoning the Well
No True Scotsman!
Ad Hominem
False Dilemma
Non Sequitur
Red Herring
Gamblers Fallacy
Bandwagon Fallacy
Appeal to Fear
The Fallacy Fallacy
Appeal to Personal Incredulity
Appeal to Authority
Special Pleading
Texas Sharpshooter
Post Hoc
Appeal to Nature
Furtive Fallacy
Alphabet Soup
Middle Ground
Relative Privation
Cognitive Bias Bootcamp:
Bystander Effect
Curse of Knowledge
Barnum Effect
Declinism
In-Group Bias
Hindsight Bias
Survivor Bias
Rhyme-as-Reason Effect
Apophenia (& Paradoleia)
The Dunning-Kruger Effect
Confirmation Bias
Anchoring Bias
Inattentional Blindness
The Frequency Illusion (AKA the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon)
G.I. Joe Fallacy
Critical Thinking Bootcamp:
Sea Lioning
Occam’s Razor
The Gish Gallop & Brandolini’s Law
Lateral Reading
Heuristics