2 ms·
A placebo effect always helps by definition. To show something only has a placebo effect is the equivalent of showing it does not work.
by seanwilson 10y ago
A placebo effect always helps by definition.
To show something only has a placebo effect is the equivalent of showing it does not work.
- SilasX 10y agoIn some contexts, you may be legitimately concerned only with the absolute level of "works" and not the level relative to a placebo baseline. The (understandable, traditional) reason for measuring relative to placebo is that, "well, you don't need the drug if it's only as good as what a placebo gives -- just use the cheaper placebo! You should only bother with some special drug if it's better than what mere belief-in-effectiveness yields." But that assumes that people are equally credulous of every placebo; if a person is more credulous of homeopathy, and credulity is hard to manufacture, then it's not quite wrong to say that it "works" under a relevant definition. (I know this is kind of an angels-on-the-head-of-a-pen technicality, but eventually we'll want to actually understand why belief-in-effectiveness can matter at all, so we can exploit it, and reasoning like yours tends to give the idea that such an effort, by definition, can't work.)