The differences in effect were so intuitive I’d either already assumed them or they came to me before reading each respective outcome. Which I’d attribute to th

The differences in effect were so intuitive I’d either already assumed them or they came to me before reading each respective outcome. Which I’d attribute to thinking a lot about what contributes to a placebo effect before reading this (which is good for my critical thinking, but bad for my capacity to benefit from good bedside manner, perceived competence, etc). What surprised me was I hadn’t thought at all about how this systemically affects care, i.e. treatment approval for lower effectiveness relative to placebo (bad for my critical thinking!). What wouldn’t have ever crossed my mind in a million years is the possibility that there could be some bias in favor of those social factors in the US medical system. In my experience, the people serving the most vulnerable and unable to access care have exceptionally poor bedside manner and appear exceptionally incompetent; it’s probably through no fault of their own, they’re likely overworked and seriously under-resourced. But I would have expected that to show the US as less responsive to the placebo effect, not more. (I’m assuming there are substituted placebo false positives which stand in for attentive medical care in these scenarios, which would very much line up with experiences I’ve had and many of my loved ones have had being pushed antidepressants and pain killers and such for any inconvenient medical issue.)