People in control groups are usually given a sugar pill and are observed to assess if any changes occur to their health during the experiments. How do we know that these changes, if any, were the result of taking the sugar pill and not just random changes that might have happened even without taking the placebo? Are there any studies that prove that the placebo effect really exist?
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That’s where sample size and statistical significance come into play. If you only tested 5 people and 3 of them reported effects with the placebo then that could easily be a coincidence. If you test 5,000 people and 3,000 consistently reported effects with the placebo then that’s much less likely to be a coincidence. You can never absolutely prove things like the placebo effect because it’s not something we can actually observe. The “proof” comes from multiple studies showing that there is a correlation and that the correlation is probably not due to random chance.
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