how does placebo work when people know it is a placebo?

Question

how does placebo work when people know it is a placebo?

In: 3

Answer 1

The trick here: is why does placebo work in the first place?

While we don’t know the mechanical workings of the answer, we know that, at a minimum, it has to do with belief. That is, the recipient must believe the intervention works.

Now, we’ve come far enough with science education that many people know about the placebo effect. So people know (and therefore believe) that placebos can be effective (even if it’s not as strong as “the real thing”).

Voila! You *believe* it’s effective, even if you know it’s a placebo, which kinda makes it a meta-placebo.