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I don't understand how the placebo effect is a human bias. Is it?

• wongarsu 7mo ago
  At least in some instances you could frame it that way: You believe that doctors and medicine are effective at treating disease, so when you are sick and a doctor gives you a bottle of sugar pills and you take them, you now interpret your state through the lens that you should feel better. A bias on how you perceive your condition That's not all that the placebo effect is. But it's probably the aspect that best fits the framing as bias
  • literalAardvark 7mo ago
    It's much more than a bias. You actually get better through placebo, as long as there's a pathway to it that is available to your body. It's a really weird effect. The fight isn't against triggering placebo, it's against letting it muddle study results.
    • eager_learner 7mo ago
      I really love the back-and-forth in this mini-thread, I learned a lot about good thinking skills here. Thanks everyone.