Once Over

Michael Brooks, a writer of an article in New Scientist magazine, took part in a “placebo” experiment in which he was told that a computer screen would indicate whether electric shocks would be mild when a green light showed up or a red light would indicate when the shock would be “more severe”.
After about fifteen minutes, the experiment ended with what he thought were a series of “mild shocks” until he was told that the “last series of shocks” were all severe. He “felt the electric fence jolts as a series of gentle taps” on his arm until he was told that the “last series of shocks were all severe”.
He realized that he had experienced “the placebo effect” because his brain had been conditioned to anticipate low pain when he saw the green light on the computer screen for the series.
The “placebo effect” for quite awhile has been considered to be nothing more than the “power of positive thinking” and so people believed that they were receiving good medical care even though it might have been nothing more than a sugar pill or an encouraging manner of the physician. In many cases, people started to feel better without any additional medical treatment.
Some current research about the placebo effect indicates that it is more complicated than simply being a “positive thinking” result; however, depending on how it is done, the placebo effect can make some people feel better even when they are not really any better.
— Based on information from “The Power of Belief” by Michael Brooks; New Scientist; August 23, 2008; pages 36-39.