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."