465. The psychology of the placebo effect

In this bonus episode, we’re looking at the placebo effect - what it is, how it became an important part of medical research, and why an inactive treatment can sometimes produce genuine changes how we feel, and what this tells us about the relationship between the brain, body and experience of receiving care. The FULL Debunking Psychology playlist: HERE https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3v4MCVBZ2itiJweLFzKVmO?si=fbf8cb5740f14b68 We explore: • How placebos became an important part of scientific research • Some of the earliest placebo experiments • Why our expectations can change the way we experience symptoms • Whether the placebo effect produces real, biological changes • Why the ritual of receiving care may itself influence how we feel • Whether placebo effects represent genuine, lasting change Follow Jemma on Instagram: @jemmasbeg https://www.instagram.com/jemmasbeg/?hl=en# Follow the podcast on Instagram: @thatpsychologypodcast https://www.instagram.com/thatpsychologypodcast/?hl=en# Subscribe on Substack: @thepsychologyofyour20s https://substack.com/@thepsychologyofyour20s For business: [email protected] mailto:[email protected] The Psychology of your 20s is not a substitute for professional mental health help. If you are struggling, distressed or require personalised advice, please reach out to your doctor or a licensed psychologist. See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human.

• 0:04Jemma Sbeg?

  These days, there are more people than ever telling you how to manage your health. Your social media feed is packed with wellness trends telling you to cold plunge, protein max, and so much more. But what's actually real? What's exaggerated? What's just wrong? Health vs. Hype from the American Medical Association breaks it all down. Emmy nominated host Trace Dominguez talks to health influencers, real people, and most importantly, doctors, to separate fact from fiction. Because when it comes to your health, who you listen to really matters. Listen to Health vs. Hype wherever you get your podcasts. You know that feeling when your skin just needs a tall drink of water?

• 0:47Jemma Sbeg?

  That's what Clinique Moisture Surge 100 Hour Moisturizer is for. Moisture Surge 100 Hour Moisturizer absorbs instantly and hydrates for 100 hours for plump, glowing skin. That's right, 100 hours. It is a lightweight, oil-free gel cream, safe for sensitive skin. It's allergy-tested and fragrance-free. I use this all the time. It makes my skin feel so fresh and plump and glowy. Even under makeup, I still see an amazing difference. It never leaves my skin oily or tacky. Try Clinique Moisture Surge 100 Hour today at clinique.com. Feels like Moisture Surge.

• 1:32Speaker 02

  After a long day of work, you can't wait to get home. Cue rush hour. Luckily, you've got easy weeknight recipes using Land O' Lakes Cheese and Butter that bring delicious restaurant taste right to your family's home. If only there was an easy recipe to washing dishes. Land O' Lakes Dairy Products. Find it in the dairy aisle.

• 1:58Jemma Sbeg?

  I've been approaching my health really differently this year. I used to be really focused on maximizing and doing more. And now I'm just realizing that if I listen to what my body needs, I perform way better. And that's why I am obsessed with my Whoop. Truly, you guys, you know I'm such a data and information-driven person. And I love opening my Whoop app and seeing how my sleep, my stress, my strain is correlating with my mood, with my running performance, with how I'm just feeling day-to-day. I'm not an elite athlete by any means, but I do really benefit. And I also just really enjoy knowing more about my body. And Whoop also gives me these actionable, personalized insights

• 2:41Jemma Sbeg?

  that have made me more intentional and meant that I make smarter decisions day-to-day about what I need, rather than just putting my foot on the gas and just going, going, going, going. New members can try Whoop with a 30-day free trial before committing to a membership. That's join.whoop.com/psychology for your free month of Whoop. This episode is sponsored by Gymshark. Gymshark has spent over 14 years obsessing over gym clothing and the people who wear it. And let me just say, I think we all know, they are very, very good at what they do. No, seriously, their stuff is so good. Their everyday seamless collection is light, it's soft, it's stretchy. All of their stuff just looks good on.

• 3:22Jemma Sbeg?

  And it's made for people who love to exercise, whatever exercise that is. Lifting, cardio, Pilates, running around campus, maybe just doing errands. Discover Gymshark and find your new favorite gym clothing at gymshark.com.

• 3:43Jemma Sbeg?

  Hello, everybody. I'm Jemma Sbeg, and welcome back to the Psychology of Your 20s, the podcast where we talk through the biggest changes, moments, and transitions of our 20s, and what they mean for our psychology.

• 4:02Jemma Sbeg?

  Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the show. Welcome back to the podcast. It is so great to have you here, back for another episode, as we, of course, break down the psychology of our 20s and so much more. Today, I have another debunking psychology bonus episode for you. If you are new here and new to this series, twice a month, I like to take a break from talking about the psychology of our 20s and instead talk about a commonly-used psychological phrase, term, concept, theory that has maybe been a little bit misconstrued by the internet or misconstrued by public perception, and just tell you what it really means.

• 4:44Jemma Sbeg?

  And take all the evidence, all the history, siphon it down, and give you the exact facts. Last week, we did the Stanford Prison Experiment. Before that, we did false memories. We did Stockholm Syndrome. Today, we are turning our sights to the placebo effect, which I would say is one of the most culturally borrowed phrases from psychology out there. What does it actually mean that when somebody says, oh, it's the placebo effect? When somebody references that, maybe not even in a medical sense, just in a general sense? What are they talking about? There is so much weird history to this. For example, Benjamin Franklin gets involved.

• 5:29Jemma Sbeg?

  There are big ethical considerations. There are studies on depression, IBS, everything you can imagine. It is a massive part of psychology and psychology research. And I feel like you deserve to know what it really means. So without further ado, let's get into it.

• 5:48Jemma Sbeg?

  So the placebo effect is the phenomena where someone experiences an improvement in their physical and mental health symptoms after they have received a fake or inactive treatment, or after they believe they have received a treatment that scientifically may not actually work. This can include things like when you get a sugar pill or a saline treatment or a false procedure. Anything that doesn't contain an actual active ingredient sometimes still produces this effect. It still makes people get better. And scientists and psychologists have been trying to figure out why for a very long time. The idea of the placebo effect actually has a very long history.

• 6:32Jemma Sbeg?

  The word placebo comes from Latin. It roughly translates to, I shall or I will please, which I think it's, I think that's a beautiful way of, of, of like, thinking about the placebo effect. Desire to like, and wanting to please and wanting to see change, whether it's going to happen or not. But one of the earliest experiments that basically recognized that this happens to us, that pure belief that something will work sometimes does actually create changes, happened in the 1700s. In the 1700s, something weird was going on. There was this man, his name was Franz Anton Mesmer. He was in France.

• 7:15Jemma Sbeg?

  And he was promoting something that he called animal magnetism. He basically believed that there was an invisible magnetic fluid that flowed through the body. And illnesses resulted when that flow became disrupted. Now, he was kind of gently getting at something like electrical signals and the fact that we have nerve cells all down us. But he was a bit far off. And his treatments were really, really wacky and very elaborate, to say the least. It included things like, he would get his patients to drink iron shavings, which is very dangerous. And then he would literally use magnets to, as he would say,

• 8:00Jemma Sbeg?

  draw the illnesses out using the iron within them. And he quickly realized that he didn't even need to use the metal magnets. If he just told people, if he just stared at people and said, and like waved his arms over them and said, I'm curing you. I'm realigning your fluids, like I'm realigning your, like how your energy travels. People would still have these intense reactions and they would see these massive improvements. And it became so popular that the King of France basically was like, somebody needs to get to the bottom of what this guy is talking about and whether this is actually real.

• 8:40Jemma Sbeg?

  And so he assigned this group to investigate, one of them being Ben Franklin, the founding, one of the founding fathers of the United States. He was in France and he was like, I need to check this out. And he was basically tasked with getting to the bottom of what was going on. So what they realized was, in order to test if this theory was real, that people were being cured by an invisible magnetic field that this man, Franz, could manipulate with his hands, they had to essentially create a control group. They needed to actually administer the treatment that he was telling people he was administering. But then they also had to tell people they were administering the treatment and give them nothing.

• 9:23Jemma Sbeg?

  Or, you know, say that like, this is the same thing that Franz has given you and see if they were having the same reactions to basically tell whether what he was doing was actually special or whether it was just this belief. They figured out very quickly that Franz wasn't doing anything special. People were just so willing to feel differently and so willing to see results that some part of them seemed to make the results appear, either by making them up for themselves or by making them up for other people. And it was kind of hard to distinguish what it was, but they were seeing and they were feeling differently.

• 10:04Jemma Sbeg?

  And so this is when the term placebo effect came to be to describe this phenomenon. Another early example came from a treatment known as Perkins tractors. It sounds awful, actually kind of was awful. These were this pair of like small metal rods that had been invented by this um, American doctor called Dr. Alicia, Elijah, I think Elijah Perkins. And the idea was that these metal rods, very similar to the previous idea, could be drawn over certain parts of the body. And the metal would attract the pain. It would, the metals could relieve illness by drawing away a harmful electoral influence from the body.

• 10:48Jemma Sbeg?

  Now, people promoted these for a whole range of things, headaches, toothaches, um, chronic illnesses. And they even got these really popular doctors at the time to basically say, these things work. This is the new, this is how we're going to cure all pain. So like, imagine like Dr. Phil, like Dr. Oz being like, this is my number one thing. Um, obviously he got a lot of money from that and he got a lot of popularity. People obviously became skeptical and so they did the same thing. They looked back to this previous time where the, where this had happened and they were like, we need to just see if this is actually working or whether it's again, this placebo effect we've been talking about. And so they created a fake prototype made of wood. And again, what they noticed was that when they told the people it was those metal tractors,

• 11:33Jemma Sbeg?

  it wasn't, but the outcome was still the same. So after so many stories like this, scientists were like, we have a bit of a problem because we have been prescribing people things and we have been administering treatments. And are we actually testing if they are working? Or are we just testing somebody's belief in the fact that they can work? And is their belief what is changing their outcomes? This really kind of came to a head in like the nineteen hundreds, specifically after the release of a very famous paper in nineteen fifty. This paper was published by Harry Beecher. He was a Harvard investigator and anesthesiologist. I can never say that word, anesthesiologist. Oh, I just did. Anyways, that's what he did.

• 12:16Jemma Sbeg?

  And he wrote this paper called The Powerful Placebo. This paper basically went viral in today's terms. And in it, he looked at data from across fifteen studies and estimated that thirty-five percent of patients in that study or in these collection of studies improved from the placebo effect alone. One in three people, nothing about their condition changed, other than that they took this fake or false medication and their belief seemed to have an influence. That is a lot of people. And so this is when scientists really were like, we need a group, a placebo group or a control group. And we need an experimental group to distinguish what is actually happening.

• 12:58Jemma Sbeg?

  That is now a central pillar in so much scientific research. So what is actually happening? How does this happen? So a placebo, a placebo drug, a placebo treatment, it's not going to shrink a tumor. It's not going to fix a broken leg. But what it can do is work on symptoms that are modulated by the brain. Specifically, as one Harvard article put it, they can work on our perception. Their effect on our expectations and the way our expectations go on to inform our reality is probably the easiest way to see this. If we expect a treatment to ease the pain we're feeling, that is going to influence how our brain interprets that sense of pain.

• 13:41Jemma Sbeg?

  It's not to say that thinking this won't hurt, I'll be fine, we'll simply switch off any pain we might feel. But pain isn't always a reliable indication of some, of like specific physical damage. A lot of it is mental. People experience pain differently. They could have the same level of, of break, they could have the same exact injury, but their psychological reaction to it, their pain tolerance, their mental reaction to it will change the, like, will change their threshold or, not their threshold, but will change how the, the pain is felt. Pain is a construction of the nervous system. That's basically what we're saying.

• 14:22Jemma Sbeg?

  It uses signals from the body, of course, but it also uses signals from our attention, from our emotions, from our memory, from previous experiences of pain and from our attitude towards the pain. It is a combination of both tangible, physical, a tangible physical thing that is happening to us and our mental interpretation of it. So if we change our expectations about the experience of pain, that might change how we feel it. In two thousand and fourteen, they did this study looking at migraine treatment. And participants were either given a real migraine drug, it's called Maxalt, or a placebo drug during their migraine attacks. The drug wasn't the only thing the researchers changed. They also told the participants different things.

• 15:05Jemma Sbeg?

  They told the patients that they were getting the real drug, that maybe they would either get the real drug or the fake drug, or that sometimes they were just going to get the fake drug, but they weren't going to tell them which. What they found was that putting more positive labeling on the drug positively boosted the efficacy of both the real medication and the placebo. So when they said, this drug that we could potentially be giving you is the best line of treatment, it is number one. Even though they knew there was a possibility they got the fake treatment, and even though some of them did, they still felt better because the pain, it felt like it was being taken care of and therefore maybe required less attention. It felt like the best thing they could possibly do was already happening.

• 15:51Jemma Sbeg?

  This can also work in the opposite direction. If somebody expects a treatment to cause nausea, to cause headaches, to cause side effects, they also may likely, be more likely, sorry, to experience those symptoms as well. This is called the nocebo effect. Here's an example of this for you. In two thousand and seven, a twenty-six-year-old man enrolled in an antidepressant trial and he swallowed twenty-nine capsules because I guess he thought, if I do it all at once, it's definitely going to work, like go big or go home. I really don't want to be depressed anymore. Now, he said, I didn't want to overdose, that wasn't my intention. I just really wanted this, to get this over with, I really wanted to feel better. But he grew concerned, he was a bit worried, you know, he read the label and it said,

• 16:34Jemma Sbeg?

  don't take them all at once. And so he went to the hospital. And when he got there, his blood pressure was through the roof, his heart rate was insanely high. He needed IV fluids, his body was showing signs of basically shutdown. And the hospital was like, we need to call the people who are involved in this trial and figure out what he's taken because otherwise we don't know how to treat it. And they called them up and they go, we need to know, he's really not doing well. And they said, well, that's really strange because we gave him the placebo. We, he, there's no active substance in that drug that he took. And he was told that, they said, don't, don't worry, this, that was just a placebo. And his symptoms rapidly subsided.

• 17:17Jemma Sbeg?

  Within about fifteen minutes, his blood pressure, his heart rate all returned to pretty much their normal levels, but also other indicators. And you might think, well, that's because he feels calm now, this was all psychological. Some parts of it weren't psychological, some parts of it were like a deep, they were deeply biological and things that you can't mentally change about yourself based on perception. Like your body has to do that for you. This obviously provided like a very striking example about how our expectations of harm can also influence how our mind and our body responds to a medication we're taking or a treatment or something that's just happening to us.

• 17:59Jemma Sbeg?

  Another potential mechanism behind the effect of the placebo is not just expectations, it's conditioning. Many of us have years and years of experience linking certain things with feeling better. You take a Panadol, the pain goes away. Your parents put a Band-Aid on your boo-boo, like suddenly it feels a lot better. You have a bath, your fever subsides, like all these little things that have worked in the past. And now we begin to link them. After years of doing this sequence, after years of taking the tablet, the headache going away, getting a cold compress, seeing the pain subside, things associated with the treatment, like the pill, the taste of the medicine, the setting, the feeling

• 18:42Jemma Sbeg?

  can become cues that tell our brain to feel better. The expectation of, of treatment, the sense that we are feeling taken care of, that we are taking care of the problem appears to actually trigger activity in the biological systems already present in the body. An inactive pill is not going to kill bacteria in the same way that an, like an antibiotic will. Expecting a broken bone to heal faster won't physically speed up your recovery. But what we are seeing is that when you feel like something is being taken care of, when you are receiving the treatment, the supportiveness of that,

• 19:22Jemma Sbeg?

  the fact that there is a level of stress taken away with feeling like you don't have to worry about this thing, that something in your body behind the scenes is, is sorting it out, does seem to put your body and your mind and all your systems in a better state for healing. The ritual of treatment, the ritual of feeling listened to as well, especially when a doctor is involved or a GP or something, that just the experience of being cared for can influence things like how we perceive our treat, how we perceive our symptoms, our level of anxiety and our body on a whole, its ability to regulate itself and put itself into rest and repair mode.

• 20:06Jemma Sbeg?

  And therefore, yeah, perhaps heal, heal us faster, even if a truly effective treatment isn't entirely present. In a study from two thousand and eight from researchers at Harvard Medical School, they really demonstrated this effect quite well with a group of patients who had IBS, Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Two groups received the same treatment, the exact same treatment. But in one group, the practitioner who administered the treatment was really, really nice, really, really warm, listened actively, expressed confidence in the treatment. And in the other, the practitioner was really cold and rude and brief.

• 20:47Jemma Sbeg?

  Same treatment, but the group with the warm, attentive person reported significantly greater symptom relief and an improved quality of life. And I think that human connection component. Itself, like that is a powerful clinical intervention. That is a powerful part of feeling better. So I want to take a short break, but then I want to discuss if the placebo effect wears off eventually. You know, is there a timeline? Is there a, I guess, a deadline on how long this feeling or this, the impact of belief or delusion can make us feel better? We're going to explore that. And I also want to explore how we can use the known placebo effect to change our behaviour and to manipulate ourselves.

• 21:33Jemma Sbeg?

  Stay with us.

• 21:38Jemma Sbeg?

  These days, there are more people than ever telling you how to manage your health. And we've all gone down an internet rabbit hole, exploring the latest health trends. Your social media feed is packed with wellness advice, telling you to cold plunge, protein max, detox, track your sleep. But what's actually real? What's exaggerated? What's just wrong? That's exactly what Health vs Hype from the American Medical Association and iHeartMedia's Ruby Studio is here to find out. Each episode, Emmy nominated science communicator Trace Dominguez, who's racked up billions of views across PBS, Discovery Channel and YouTube, talks to health influencers, real people, and most importantly, doctors,

• 22:22Jemma Sbeg?

  to separate fact from fiction. Because when it comes to your health, who you listen to matters. Listen to Health vs Hype on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

• 22:38Jemma Sbeg?

  Something that really frustrates me is when wellness brands greenwash their products to make them seem more clean or better for the environment, when they are actually not. When you look into it, they are kind of just like the rest of them. Nature Sunshine, however, doesn't just talk about the planet. They do something about it. They sustainably source ingredients, they craft their supplements with 100% solar powered manufacturing, and their products are incredible. I don't drink coffee, and so Nature Sunshine Brain Edge gives me that kick I sometimes need with potent ingredients, combining yerba mate with nootropics, adaptogens, botanicals to support mental clarity and focus. And you already know how much I love their marine glow and have for years.

• 23:23Jemma Sbeg?

  It is the only collagen that combines skin-supporting marine collagen with the sun and blue light protection of luton to make your skin feel and look glowy and protected. Plus, I just really like that they have nature at the core of everything that they do. Try Nature Sunshine and experience the difference with supplements that are better for you and the planet. Go to naturessunshine.com today and use the code PSYCH for 20% off your first order plus free shipping. That's code PSYCH for 20% off your first order at naturessunshine.com.

• 23:58Jemma Sbeg?

  This episode is sponsored by Gymshark. Gymshark has spent over 14 years obsessing over gym clothing and the people who wear it. And let me just say, I think we all know they are very, very good at what they do. No, seriously, their stuff is so good. Their everyday seamless collection is light, it's soft, it's stretchy. All of their stuff just looks good on, and it's made for people who love to exercise, whatever exercise that is. Lifting, cardio, Pilates, running around campus, maybe just doing errands. Discover Gymshark and find your new favourite gym clothing at gymshark.com.

• 24:35Jemma Sbeg?

  I've been approaching my health really differently this year. I used to be really focused on maximizing and doing more. And now I'm just realising that if I listen to what my body needs, I perform way better. And that's why I am obsessed with my Whoop. Truly, you guys, you know I'm such a data and information-driven person. And I love opening my Whoop app and seeing how my sleep, my stress, my strain is correlating with my mood, with my running performance, with how I'm just feeling day to day. I'm not an elite athlete by any means, but I do really benefit. And I also just really enjoy knowing more about my body. And Whoop also gives me these actionable, personalised insights that have made me more intentional

• 25:20Jemma Sbeg?

  and meant that I make smarter decisions day to day about what I need, rather than just putting my foot on the gas and just going, going, going, going. New members can try Whoop with a 30-day free trial before committing to a membership. That's join.whoop.com/psychology for your free month of Whoop. No two journeys look alike. That's why SkyMiles is designed to move with you wherever life takes you. Fly, it flies with you on new adventures, family getaways, business trips, and the moments that matter most. Earn, it earns alongside your everyday life. It dines with you on special nights out, it streams alongside your favourite entertainment, rides through your daily routines, and helps turn everyday moments into something more.

• 26:04Jemma Sbeg?

  Redeem, it helps you redeem for what's next. From spontaneous weekend escapes to the trip that you have been dreaming about, to upgrading your next trip to a premium cabin experience, the miles you've earned along the way can help take you further. Access, and it unlocks access to exclusive, one-of-a-kind experiences and opportunities that make membership feel rewarding long before takeoff and long after landing. Because SkyMiles is more than a travel programme, it is a membership that moves with you. Fly farther, earn every day, redeem your way and access more. Because when your membership is as unique as you are, there's no telling where your next journey will take you.

• 26:46Jemma Sbeg?

  So we have a lot of evidence that the placebo effect does exist and does produce a change. In almost every single illness, every single area of medical investigation, the placebo effect is known and is reported on. But how long does that change actually last for? There is a very important distinction between changing a symptom and changing the thing that's causing that symptom. A placebo might reduce pain, but it's not repairing the damaged tissue producing the pain. It might alter how breathless somebody feels, but it's not actually opening their narrowed airways. It might temporarily increase dopamine activity because of belief,

• 27:30Jemma Sbeg?

  but it doesn't change, you know, an underlying biological explanation for depression or for Parkinson's disease or for any number of, of conditions, diseases or impairments. The underlying cause is still there. And eventually, if it's not being treated, like the placebo does wear out. The thing is, a lot of our research on the placebo effect is really short term. It's often minutes, hours, weeks, very rarely more than a few months. Because after a while, it's really unethical to keep someone on a placebo if there is a proven real drug that can help them. Take, for example, that depression trial with that 20-year-old guy who overdosed.

• 28:15Jemma Sbeg?

  Again, he didn't overdose deliberately, but you don't do a trial like that unless you need help and unless you are desperate. Even if you are seeing some effects from the placebo, at some stage, if you see that the drug is also working or not working, you can't keep people from a legitimate treatment. That, but that would be pretty awful. Unless you tell them that it's a placebo and they agree to the possibility. Think about this in terms of like cancer drug trials for people who are like at the end of their lives and really need like a bit of a hail Mary, or people with motor neuron disease, or any of those things where it's like trial drugs are some of their last resorts.

• 28:56Jemma Sbeg?

  There are a lot of ethical complications with knowing half the people participating are just going to be the dummy guinea pig group. And that you believe enough in this drug to have put it into, to be testing it, you already know there is some evidence for it, to, for even a second, perhaps not give somebody that life-saving treatment or medication can be pretty brutal. And even if they know it's the conditions of the experiment, I think, you know, there's a lot of limits to doing that, and it can just get very blurry, very, very quickly. What they now do is that they still do placebo trials, but they do it in a very specific way. It's called open-label placebo procedure.

• 29:41Jemma Sbeg?

  And it is where people explicitly know that they might be receiving a placebo, and they are told that this is part of how they're going to measure this. So basically, they are informed. What they typically don't, didn't wanna do in the past was tell people that there was even an option for them to, for them to receive a placebo, because they thought that would show the effect more. Nowadays, they'll often say, there is a chance that you actually aren't going to be getting any treatment. And obviously, that maybe changes some of the results, but it's a lot nicer to tell people that. And even then, even then, people do, even when they know they could be taking a placebo, they do still see improvements.

• 30:26Jemma Sbeg?

  There was a two thousand and ten study involving people with, again, with IBS. And even though they were taking pills openly labelled as potentially placebo pills, they still felt better than people receiving no treatment at all. Whatever was happening doesn't entirely depend on even decep-, even deception. Like, even them knowing that they could be deceived, the slight possibility that maybe they aren't being deceived, seems to still have an effect. You know, as I said, it's hard to see the long-term effects of the placebo effect, because normally research like that is gonna get shut down. But one of the best examples

• 31:06Jemma Sbeg?

  of how long the placebo effect might last, has been revealed recently, and it came from a two thousand and twenty-three study on lower back pain. The researchers followed up with people who had previously taken a placebo, and they assessed them three years later. And what they found was that, after a while, the effects of receiving even a dud treatment wore off. There was no evidence that there had been a lasting benefit compared with the control group. So, the original short-term success of feeling like you're being taken care of, feeling like things are getting better, has a shelf life. It doesn't translate

• 31:47Jemma Sbeg?

  into a lasting improvement. So, that is probably the most critical part of this. We know a placebo effect does exist, but there is a deadline. There is a, there, it's a bit of a ticking clock, as to how long it is going to, before the body, and I think also the mind catches on. There is so much that, there's only so much that we can psychologically trick ourselves into believing, and there's only so much that our body can feel motivated to do in the, in the face of, of treatment, or feeling like it's receiving treatment, before it realizes, hey, actually, like, nothing is changing for me biologically, I'm not getting more resources, like, nothing is actually helping me here. Um, yeah, and,

• 32:32Jemma Sbeg?

  and we see a dip, we see that the effect wears off. Regardless of this, though, the placebo effect can still be helpful in some areas. Some areas beyond medical intervention. What I'm talking about is how we can use the placebo effect to make stuff happen for ourselves, to make us believe that things are working out for us, and to actually help us be more successful and achieve our dreams. We've spoken about the placebo effect only in terms of medications, and only in terms of medical interventions. But all the principles underlying how the placebo effect does seem to show results or changes in behaviour,

• 33:17Jemma Sbeg?

  can be applied to things like exercise, and productivity, and audacity, and goal setting. And I wanna explain, how do we use the placebo effect in our favour? The first thing is to remember that your expectations change your reality. We are seeing this in a medical setting, we can also see it in a personal setting. If you manipulate your expectations before your expectations manipulate you, you can create an outcome through self-belief that is more preferred. Your brain is constantly making predictions about what something is gonna feel like, what something is gonna be like, and those predictions influence the experience itself. We make these predictions all the time. The workout is gonna be awful,

• 34:01Jemma Sbeg?

  I'm gonna be so anxious at this party, this thing I have to do today is gonna leave me exhausted. And typically, it's hard to prove that wrong, wrong, once our brain believes it. You don't need to replace those thoughts with, like, delusional positivity, you just need to give your brain a different prediction. You know, a workout always feels good afterwards, I'm actually gonna feel amazing, I'm probably gonna have more fun at that party than I thought I was, and if not, I'll just leave. You know, a busy day actually sometimes leaves me feeling energized. You are essentially giving your brain another outcome to look for, another expectation to consider. Tell yourself first what you want to expect, or

• 34:43Jemma Sbeg?

  what you want the outcome to be, and then work back from there. And your brain pays attention to evidence that supports your original expectation, even if at the beginning it feels forced. This is the same thing with the placebo effect. You say, this medication is going to make me feel better, your brain searches for evidence that you do feel better, and you can do this for these examples as well. Secondly, you can create your own placebo cues. If our brain learns through conditioning that certain objects, environments, rituals, predict a particular feeling, or a particular state, we can build those associations for ourselves. If you say, this type of music always gets me hyped, eating this specific breakfast always gives me more energy, I always have more, like, a more productive

• 35:27Jemma Sbeg?

  day after I exercise, this outfit makes people see me as more confident, you start to believe it, and those cues start to become psychological shortcuts for the feeling that you want, which is to feel good, to feel confident, to feel healthy, to feel happy. You wear the dress, and because you've previously always said, this always makes me feel confident, people always treat me really well when I wear this, I always feel great, you're gonna start creating those situations for yourself more, because you want to support your initial belief or your initial claim. I did this personally with my brown noise playlist. I was like, I cannot focus, I need something that's gonna cue me into focus. And I convinced myself that every time I listen to brown noise, I worked better. Whether I actually

• 36:09Jemma Sbeg?

  did or not, I now do work better when I play it, because my brain has been cued. And sometimes it's difficult to get past that initial hurdle of, like, you kind of know you're tricking yourself, but what you will find is that after enough repetition, your brain is very gullible. And it's very easy to believe what you continuously tell yourself. I think the final way that we can use the placebo effect in our favour, knowing everything we know about how belief literally shapes biology, physiology, psychology, and our emotions, is vivid visualization. This is a tip I got from Dr. David Hamilton. He wrote the book, The Joy of Actually Giving a Fuck. The other book he wrote that I feel like

• 36:52Jemma Sbeg?

  is really, really good, if you like more of the spiritual psychology, is Why Woo Woo Works. And he specifically focuses on the mind-body biochemistry connection, which is essentially what we've been speaking about for this entire episode. And what he said was that when we can visualize and see with full clarity the future that we want, and we believe it's possible, and we believe that what we are doing is working, and we can truly, like, see it in our mind's eye, we are more likely to work towards that thing, and we are more likely to collect evidence that what we want is working for us, and this will motivate us even more. It's very similar to the psychology of manifestation.

• 37:35Jemma Sbeg?

  The more detail you add, the more your dream feels real and possible, which means the less dissuaded you will become, the more proactive you will be, the more confidence you will have, the greater likelihood that the thing you imagined all along happening will happen. Manifestation and the placebo effect, the psychological underlies are, and this is gonna sound insane, basically identical. It really is just belief, and how belief influences us in ways that we still don't understand on a tangible, physical

• 38:15Jemma Sbeg?

  level, um, to, to basically create a reality for ourselves that we want. Again, this is not advice for medical conditions. Um, when it comes to diseases, illnesses, like, eventually, like we said, the placebo effect wears out. Real treatment, scientifically investigated treatment, is always going to be better. You cannot cure yourself through your mindset alone. Belief cannot take away cancerous cells, it cannot take away chronic pain, it cannot eliminate, um, a disease of your body. But for things separate to this, that are more about self-belief in a personal success, and a personal goal, and a personal

• 39:01Jemma Sbeg?

  manifestation area, it is incredibly powerful. Reality is about fifty percent perception. And so, change your perception, you're better able to change the part of your reality that you can control. And you can change your perception by what you initially feed yourself about the likelihood or the chances of interventions that you are putting into your life, being successful. So, that, my friends, is our episode on the psychology and history of the placebo effect, with a little bit at the end about how you can use this in your favour. Placebo continues to be fascinating, researchers. Like, we still can't fully explain this mechanism. I've given you the best explanations that we have so far, but it's a big research focus for those who study mind-body connection, and it's constantly

• 39:46Jemma Sbeg?

  evolving. So, we're gonna see so much more of it in the future. There is a mechanism underlying all this, we really just don't understand yet. Again, it's unethical for it to replace real treatments long-term. So, it's hard to understand when exactly the effects start to wear off and why, but it's a very good way scientifically of measuring what actually works biologically, and what actually works psychologically, in a systematic way. And without placebo trials, placebo effects, control groups, we would not have some of the life-saving, like, medications and treatments that we do that save lives, literally every single minute of every single day. So, that's, I think, everything we need to know about the placebo effect. Thank you to our researcher, Libby Cobett, for her

• 40:31Jemma Sbeg?

  assistance with this episode. Now, this episode, as I said, was part of our larger debunking psychology series. So, if you like episodes like this, if you like more myth-busty, historical type episodes, where maybe we reference Benjamin Franklin and things like that, I'm gonna leave a link to the full playlist below. We cover everything from personality tests to dopamine, Stockholm Syndrome, Freud, there's literally so much there. So, I hope you go and check it out. Make sure as well that you leave a five-star review if you feel called to do so. If you enjoyed this episode, send it to a friend, follow us on Instagram. There are so many other ways to connect, I'm gonna leave a link in the description. But until next time, be safe, be kind, be gentle to yourself. We will talk very, very soon.

• 41:17Jemma Sbeg?

  I've been approaching my health really differently this year. I used to be really focused on maximizing and doing more. And now I'm just realizing that if I listen to what my body needs, I perform way better. And that's why I am obsessed with my Whoop. Truly, you guys, you know, I'm such a data and information driven person. And I love opening my Whoop app and seeing how my sleep, my stress, my strain is correlating with my mood, with my running performance, with how I'm just feeling day to day. I'm not an elite athlete by any means, but I do really benefit. And I also just really enjoy knowing more about my body. And Whoop also gives me these actionable personalized insights that have made me more

• 42:01Jemma Sbeg?

  intentional and meant that I make smarter decisions day to day about what I need, rather than just putting my foot on the gas and just going, going, going, going. New members can try Whoop with a 30 day free trial before committing to a membership. That's join.whoop.com/psychology for your free month of Whoop. This episode is sponsored by Gymshark. Gymshark has spent over 14 years obsessing over gym clothing and the people who wear it. And let me just say, I think we all know, they are very, very good at what they do. No, seriously, their stuff is so good. Their everyday seamless collection is light, it's soft, it's stretchy. All of their stuff just looks

• 42:41Jemma Sbeg?

  good on. And it's made for people who love to exercise, whatever exercise that is, lifting, cardio, Pilates, running around campus, maybe just doing errands. Discover Gymshark and find your new favorite gym clothing at gymshark.com.

• 42:58Jemma Sbeg?

  Hi, this is Jemma Sbeg. Taking care of yourself doesn't have to mean completely changing your routine. Naturewise Vitamin D3 is an easy way to support immune, bone, and muscle health every single day. And because quality matters, Naturewise has one of the first NSF certified Vitamin D3 currently on the market. Plus, it's non-GMO, gluten free, and third party tested. Visit naturewise.com to explore their Vitamin D3 options and find the one that's right for you. naturewise.com. You know that feeling when your skin just needs a tall drink of water? That's what Clinique

• 43:39Jemma Sbeg?

  Moisture Surge 100 Hour Moisturizer is for. Moisture Surge 100 Hour Moisturizer absorbs instantly and hydrates for 100 hours for plump, glowing skin. That's right, 100 hours. It is a lightweight, oil-free gel cream, safe for sensitive skin, it's allergy tested and fragrance free. I use this all the time. It makes my skin feel so fresh and plump and glowy. Even under makeup, I still see an amazing difference. It never leaves my skin oily or tacky. Try Clinique Moisture Surge 100 Hour today at clinique.com. Feels like moisture surge.

• 44:23Jemma Sbeg?

  Growth isn't linear. There's no magic timeline or secret template. And no one understands that quite like Southern New Hampshire University, because SNHU has online degree programs built for whatever path you are on. Tried college before? Transfer up to 90 credits. And if you're new to this, no worries. Every student gets a dedicated academic advisor. And here's the best part, there's no set class times. So school actually fits your life. Ready to get started? Visit SNHU.edu/psych. That's SNHU.edu/psych.

• 45:01Speaker 00

  This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human.