Taking a sugar pill can sometimes lead to real improvements in health. How does believing in a treatment, even when it’s fake, trigger physical changes in our bodies?
In: Biology
A good example is actually from Psych 101 textbooks: Pavlov’s dogs. They would salivate when they heard a bell ring because they knew food was coming soon. Their bodies were conditioned with hundreds or thousands of trials for their bodies to respond to the bells. But if food didn’t show up: placebo! Their bodies expected something and did physiological preparations for it. But that doesn’t guarantee it will happen…
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