6 ms·
They sometimes do work, because of the placebo effect.
by pg314 10y ago
They sometimes do work, because of the placebo effect.
- pavel_lishin 10y agoIf something works as well as plain water, then it doesn't work.
- vinay427 10y agoI think that's the point that the commenter you replied to was getting at. In other words, mocking people who claim it "works" because they believed it worked by the placebo effect.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- SilasX 10y agoOr we should work on getting better at controlled use of the dynamic behind the placebo effect.
- ars 10y agoThe dynamic is the brain. For example look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hospitalism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hospitalism - infants will themself to death because they are not loved. Ask doctors and nurses and they'll tell you about people with and without the will to live, and how having a good outlook can mean the difference between life and death.
- nommm-nommm 10y agoThat Wikipedia page said nothing about infants willing themselves to death.
- ars 10y agoAnd what cause of death did you see on that page? These are infants who are well cared for, fed, clean, warm. But they die simply because they are not held.
- nommm-nommm 10y agoDoesn't say anything about death "The symptoms could include retarded physical development, and disruption of perceptual-motor skills and language." Even if they did die is quite a stretch to assume they willed themselves dead. Infant lack a mental concept of death or dying to even be able to will themselves dead. As for a cause, I would assume something similar to amblyopia.
- ars 10y ago> then it doesn't work. So it cured someone, yet didn't work? I don't think you realize how powerful the placebo effect actually is.
- afterburner 10y agoIf the only effect is a placebo effect, it proves the product literally did nothing. Marketing something for its placebo effect is... hilarious.
- NetStrikeForce 10y agoCuring is not the same as relieving symptoms.
- ars 10y agoYou're not the only one that incorrectly thinks placebos can only relive symptoms. But that is simply incorrect, placebos can cure, yes, actually cure. And not just mental conditions either (which is another common, yet incorrect, belief).
- NetStrikeForce 10y agoThanks for correcting me, do you have any examples I can follow up on and learn something new today? I'm not being sarcastic, I'm serious.
- NetStrikeForce 10y agoIt's been three days. I guess you had no examples, but I'm still open to hear about it :)
- baobrain 10y agoI doubt the placebo effect is present in teething babies.
- vinay427 10y agoIt may very well be present in the parents/caretakers of teething babies.
- pavel_lishin 10y agoHaving a young child will bring out the superstitious idiot in you. Last night the baby went to sleep because I walked counter-clockwise while singing lullabies? That's it, that's the only direction I can walk in from here on out while putting her to bed. The kid ate her veggies with no complaint because I was humming The Simpsons theme? It's now the official meal-time song.
- gknoy 10y agoThese seem profoundly irrational, but one thing I've noticed is that young kids are profoundly irrational beings. You will feel like a vulcan by comparison. My kid flips out if I put the blankets on her in the wrong layering order .... but "wrong" is different every night.
- pavel_lishin 10y agoMine's 9 months old; she doesn't care what I hum or how I turn. My examples are 100% me being irrational. When she gets older and starts having well-developed preferences, then I will no longer be crazy - only my behavior will be, because I'll be in thrall to a tiny crazy person.
- sidlls 10y agoYes, this. Babies communicate by crying and cooing. It's difficult to tell what's causing them to cry absent something obvious (like an injury). I could easily picture a parent trying anything and thinking it works purely out of coincidence.
- heliumcraft 10y agoThe placebo "effect" is not some magical effect that heals people, it's just a bias in reporting the results combined with a regression to the mean.
- collyw 10y agoI could see it being a lot more than that. Its well known that stress worsens many conditions, so I see no reason that having "positive thoughts" wouldn't do the opposite.
- heliumcraft 10y agoA lot of the worsening/improvement is a perceived one. Also the point of doing double blind experiments with a placebo as the control is that if the new medication doesn't do better than a placebo then it effectively proves that it doesn't work.
- empath75 10y agothat's literally the opposite of what the placebo effect means.