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The Placebo Effect

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The placebo effect occurs when people's expectations or beliefs influence or determine their experience in a given situation. In other words, simply expecting something to happen can actually make it happen.

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Ideally, the people who observe and record the children’s behavior are unaware of who was assigned to the experimental or control group, in order to control for experimenter bias. Experimenter bias refers to the possibility that a researcher’s expectations might skew the results of the study. Remember, conducting an experiment requires a lot of planning, and the people involved in the research project have a vested interest in supporting their hypotheses. If the observers knew which child was...

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Blinding is a commonly used method of not telling participants which treatment a subject is receiving. Blinding is a critical part of a randomized control trial or RCT. It reduces the bias that affects the results. In an RCT, blinding is used in the form of a placebo. A placebo effect occurs when untreated subjects falsely believe they have received the treatment and report improved symptoms. A placebo or a dummy treatment is administered to subjects to negate the bias caused by such an effect.

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 11, 2026

How to Study Placebo Responses in Motion Sickness with a Rotation Chair Paradigm in Healthy Participants

How to Study Placebo Responses in Motion Sickness with a Rotation Chair Paradigm in Healthy Participants

Published on: December 14, 2014

Rethinking the placebo effect.

P Louhiala¹, R Puustinen

¹Department of Public Health, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.

Medical Humanities

|May 16, 2013

Summary

This study clarifies the varied meanings of placebo and placebo effect, suggesting "care effect" for clinical contexts and reserving "placebo" for research. It addresses conceptual issues and the existence of the placebo effect.

Area of Science:

Medical research methodology
Clinical pharmacology
Philosophy of medicine

Background:

The terms "placebo" and "placebo effect" have diverse interpretations, leading to scientific controversy.
Discrepancies in understanding arise when different viewpoints on these concepts are not acknowledged.

Purpose of the Study:

To clarify conceptual issues surrounding the terms "placebo" and "placebo effect".
To examine the existence and discussion of the placebo effect.
To propose alternative terminology for clinical contexts.

Main Methods:

Literature review and conceptual analysis.
Examination of five distinct uses of placebos as inert interventions.
Analysis of the scientific debate regarding the placebo effect.

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Last Updated: May 11, 2026

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Main Results:

Identified a wide range of meanings and controversies associated with placebo and placebo effect.
Listed five specific applications of placebos as inert treatments.
Critically examined the concept and evidence for the placebo effect.

Conclusions:

The term "placebo" is best suited for research settings.
The term "care effect" is proposed as a more appropriate replacement for clinical contexts.
Distinguishing between research and clinical use of these terms can reduce ambiguity.