This is the connection more people should be making. The placebo effect is a social effect. Somebody else whom you trust has given you something. More generally

This is the connection more people should be making. The placebo effect is a social effect. Somebody else whom you trust has given you something. More generally it is an expectation, but the double-blind nature of placebo studies means that it is also always a social transaction. The effect is boosted by the perceived authority of the prescriber (white coat, hospital, colored pill). The same mechanism probably underlies higher survival of religious-minded cancer patients.