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A placebo can work even when you know it's a placebo

It has long been known that – to an extent – the human body can feel relief from suffering, even if the medicine we take doesn’t actually work.

This, of course, is the placebo effect. It can seem very real.

And now, new research suggests that people who have come to trust a placebo over time will continue to benefit from it – even after they know it has no physical effect.

“The goal was to figure out if expectations and beliefs are truly required to induce placebo effects,” Scott Schafer, a PhD candidate in psychology and neuroscience at the University of Colorado Boulder, told Yahoo Canada.

Subjects were repeatedly given a placebo treatment for pain. After four treatments, they were let in on the secret. For many, it didn’t matter.

“If they believe it’s worked for a long enough period of time, and if we then remove that belief, we wanted to see whether the brain mechanisms involved with producing the pain relief continue to operate,” Schafer explained.

“And the answer is yes, they do.”

You believe something to work, and the brain is going to basically make it so that it does work, whether or not it’s an actual treatment.”

Scott Schafer

Looking for an explanation, Schafer notes that the release of pain-soothing opioids in the human brain appears to be directly linked to our expectations.

“It tells me that the brain works to make our expectations real,” he said.

“You believe something to work, and the brain is going to basically make it so that it does work, whether or not it’s an actual treatment.”

Not always, of course – and not with everyone. But an intriguing pattern did, indeed, develop.

Expanding on the idea, Schafer says there are many non-medical examples of this in our every-day lives.

“You’re walking along, and maybe you’re actually hungry but you’re not paying attention to it. Then all of a sudden, someone asks if you’d like to get some lunch. And all of a sudden, you’re starving, for no reason at all. Nothing has changed – except for your awareness.”

Schafer laughs out loud when it is suggested he has just described how the entire advertising industry works. Politics and show biz too, though to a somewhat lesser extent.

“This will work, as long as people believe in the source of the information. But if they don’t believe, it can have exactly the opposite effect.”

His conclusion is stark – and a wee bit chilling.

“If you can get someone to believe in something, then they will do the work for you,” he says.

“The brain substantiates belief, eventually.”