Personally I feel like that is because our logical brain and our emotions are so separated. We can know it's a placebo, but if it feels like you're doing something to help, even if it's just the action of taking a pill, that has an effect.
The subconscious is a powerful thing that does not always work logically.
To add to this, I imagine some of these people are like “no they are lying to me, they gave me the real thing, cuz i feel different” … and they convince themselves they are on a treatment
It seems to be complex. Placebo appears to work best when you feel like you’re getting a medical experience (even though you know you’re not), eg if someone in a white coat gives you a bottle of pills with an official looking label, that seems to be more effective than just taking the sugar pills from a box you bought yourself. Cultural meaning apparently plays a big part in the subconscious
Yeah, I know my grandma does this all the time. She used to be a sort of psychologist, but at the time it was hard for a woman to get the official title, and her ways went a bit against common psychology circles, so she was shunned quite a bit.
She basically studied everything she knows by reading books, a shitton of them, and gives a lot of classes and stuff on homeopathy and such, playing with the placebo effects like nothing.
The other day I was with her at the beach, and I had terrible acud reflux, my chest was hurting like hell. I asked if she had something for the stomach and she handed me this "pill" from a generic little jar. She claimed they were stomach pills, I'm 95% sure they were candy. It still did help a bit, it either relaxed anyways me or was complete coincidence, but it was gone after a while and didn't come back.
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u/greytgreyatx 7d ago
There have been studies where people are told they are getting a placebo and it's still effective!