Unleash the Power of your Mind.^*

1. 59%

   of people with IBS who were told plainly that their pills were placebos, like sugar pills, reported adequate relief after three weeks. Of those who took nothing, 35% did.

   Kaptchuk et al., Harvard Medical School · PLOS ONE, 2010 (opens in a new tab)

2. $2.50

   Volunteers rated electric shocks before and after a placebo “painkiller.” 85% of those told it cost $2.50 a pill reported less pain, against 61% of those told it was discounted to 10¢.

   Waber, Shiv, Carmon & Ariely · JAMA, 2008 (opens in a new tab)

3. $1,500

   People with Parkinson’s got the same saline injection twice, once described as a $100 drug and once as a $1,500 drug. Their movement improved more after the expensive one.

   Espay et al. · Neurology, 2015 (opens in a new tab)

4. 62%

   of IBS patients reported adequate relief after fake acupuncture from a warm, attentive, confident practitioner. The same fake acupuncture without the warmth: 44%. A waiting list: 28%.

   Kaptchuk et al., Harvard Medical School · BMJ, 2008 (opens in a new tab)

5. ™

   Headache tablets worked better in a well-known brand’s packaging than the same tablets in plain packaging. The difference was biggest when the tablets were placebos.

   Branthwaite & Cooper · BMJ, 1981 (opens in a new tab)

6. >50%

   of a migraine drug’s effect came from the placebo. A placebo labeled with the drug’s name worked about as well as the real drug labeled “placebo.”

   Kam-Hansen et al., Harvard Medical School · Science Translational Medicine, 2014 (opens in a new tab)

7. 4×

   a day beat twice a day. Across 79 ulcer trials, placebo taken four times daily healed 44% of ulcers in four weeks. Taken twice daily: 36%.

   de Craen et al. · British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 1999 (opens in a new tab)

8. Sham

   180 people with knee arthritis had real arthroscopic surgery or a fake operation, skin incisions only. At no point in two years did the real surgery do better.

   Moseley et al. · New England Journal of Medicine, 2002 (opens in a new tab)

Watch and read

• Documentary · 48 minFear and FaithDerren Brown, Channel 4. A fake drug company launches a pill called Rumyodin.(opens in a new tab)
• Documentary · 59 minThe Placebo Experiment: Can My Brain Cure My Body?BBC Horizon with Michael Mosley, 2018(opens in a new tab)
• PodcastThe Dramatic CureHidden Brain with Shankar Vedantam(opens in a new tab)
• PodcastPlaceboRadiolab, WNYC(opens in a new tab)
• ArticleThe Placebo PhenomenonHarvard Magazine, 2013(opens in a new tab)
• ArticleA placebo can work even when you know it’s a placeboHarvard Health Publishing, 2016(opens in a new tab)
• ArticlePlacebos Are Getting More Effective. Drugmakers Are Desperate to Know Why.Wired, 2009(opens in a new tab)
• Talk · 19 minLife lessons from an ad manRory Sutherland, TED, 2009(opens in a new tab)
• Video · 9 minHomeopathy Explained – Gentle Healing or Reckless Fraud?Kurzgesagt, 2018(opens in a new tab)