what does placebo and the placebo effect mean?

Question

what does placebo and the placebo effect mean?

In: 1

Answer 1

The placebo effect is a real thing, and it means that sometimes just *believing* actually is enough to cause an effect. For example–giving someone a pill made out of sugar instead of painkillers can be enough to dull their pain, because they *believed* they were taking painkillers.

A “placebo” is that sugar pill–the thing that someone else believes will cause an effect, even though logically it should make no difference at all.