Friday, October 03, 2008

Why expensive placebos are better than cheap placebos

Last night at Harvard, the Ig Nobel awards were handed out for unconventional research. It's an annual event where scientists get a little crazy, including a much better method of getting talkative winners off the stage:

The Ig Nobels ham it up to the extreme. When speeches go on for more than a minute, an 8-year-old named Miss Sweetie Poo is there to declare "Please stop. I'm bored," and usher the garrulous prize-winners off the stage.
The IgNobel for economics went to Duke University professor Dan Ariely who found that when people pay more for something, they tend to think it's a superior product, even when it's not:

Ariely recruited volunteers for a study and printed brochures describing an invented painkiller that was actually just a placebo. Some were told the drug was expensive; others were told it was cheap.

The subjects were given electric shocks before and after they took the pill. Those who got the pricey fake medicine reported a bigger reduction in pain than those with the cheaper fake.
There's some important work here:

Other prizes ranged from studies on the effect the sound of crunching has on the perception of the crispiness of a Pringle, to an examination of the tips that professional lap dancers earn.
Nice work, if you can get it. Or as Dr. Venkman once said: "Back off, man, I'm a scientist."

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