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A transferable anxiolytic placebo effect from noise to negative effect
Yili Zhao1,2, Jianxin Zhang1, Lizhuang Yuan3
1a Key Laboratory of Mental Health , Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) , Chaoyang District , Beijing , P.R. China .
Background:
The placebo effect in relieving negative emotion arousal is poorly understood.
Aims:
We examined whether placebo expectation established with noise stimuli could have a transferable anxiolytic effect on negative emotion arousal.
Methods:
In Experiment 1, noise intensity was surreptitiously lowered during placebo condition in the preconditioning phase to reinforce placebo expectation, and the noise-relieving placebo effect was assessed in the testing phase. In Experiment 2, the same manipulation as in Experiment 1 was administered in the preconditioning phase, but the anxiolytic placebo effect was assessed in the testing phase using negative pictures.
Results:
Intensity and annoyance by the noise in Experiment 1 were significantly reduced, and unpleasantness in Experiment 2 was also significantly reduced in the placebo condition.
Conclusion:
Direct noise-relieving placebo effects and transferred anxiolytic placebo effects were found. The present study provides evidence that the placebo effect can be transferred from noise to emotion.
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