The role of mindsets in placebo effects and healthcare

Mindsets are core assumptions or beliefs about the meaning or nature of a domain or category that orient people to a particular set of expectations, attributions, and goals. In the domain of health, mindsets like "this treatment is effective," "stress is enhancing," or "my body is capable" may represent an important, yet understudied, mechanism behind placebo effects and other health outcomes. Understanding how to effectively harness mindsets in the health domain has significant implications for clinical practice and healthcare interventions, due to their potential to shape physiological, behavioral, and psychological outcomes, sometimes in profound ways. In this chapter, we introduce readers to the historical evolution and theoretical underpinnings of mindsets. We also elucidate their relevance in placebo effects, and in healthcare more broadly, by synthesizing research on established and emerging mindsets and discuss their relationship to and distinctions from more well-known psychological mechanisms, such as expectations. Additionally, we examine key challenges in research and propose avenues for future exploration, including the need to refine measurement techniques, explore contextual factors, and align terminology. In doing so, we underscore the potential of mindset-focused interventions to offer sustainable improvements to health and well-being and address some limitations of conventional placebo-based approaches.