Placebo Still Works even if Subject is Aware

[rnatalli]

http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/12/27/placebos-work-even-when-we-know-theyre-placebos/22106.html

An interesting phenomenon and certainly applies to our hobby here at Audioholics.

 

[emorphien]

I've always suspected that was the case, interesting read!

 

[mtrycrafts]

http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/12/27/placebos-work-even-when-we-know-theyre-placebos/22106.html

An interesting phenomenon and certainly applies to our hobby here at Audioholics.

Well, the subconscious works mysteriously
You read reports here that a listener didn't want an audible difference yet there was one or the reverse. I would say that the subconscious dictates a lot. More reason to control the tests and do lots of trials.

And, this may be the reason why the subconscious responds this way:

“We told the patients that they didn’t have to even believe in the placebo effect. Just take the pills.”

Just taking something for the problem triggers the subconscious to trigger a response. Maybe I need to test this and be published

 

[Swerd]

I do agree with the general observation that attitudes, beliefs, and expectations can and do effect our perceptions in many things, including medicine and audio. But there were a few unusual circumstances in this study that may have contributed to such a strong placebo effect.

Irritable bowel syndrome, the condition studied in that report, has been known to be treatable in some patients by psychological methods. Also, the patients in this study answered questionnaires about whether their symptoms improved or not. So, it shouldn't be too surprising that known placebos (patients were not blinded in this study) had such a strong effect.

Also, there were 40 patients in each arm (placebo vs. no treatment) of the study - enough to generate reports in the popular press, but not enough to make for statistically significant results.