>>10890420>And that is measured by the control group, woah.No. More people will say something happened when they're given a sugar pill than if they're just in some "given nothing, not even a placebo" control group because now they're expecting something to happen. What the first anon brought up is the general state everyone's in where what you believe are bodily sensations aren't as high fidelity and accurate as you think. It really is a belief rather than some raw "qualia" thing. You can forget you "have a headache" if you get distracted by something really important coming up. And if you have anxiety problems you can end up thinking your way into the belief you're experiencing all sorts of random pains, muscle weaknesses, dramatic changes in body temperature, loss of vision, weird smells you read about as indicative of having a stroke, etc.
That's most of the placebo topic covered. That said, there are more substantial things that can happen with the placebo effect. You have shit like adrenaline, cortisone, blood pressure, muscle tension, gastrointestinal inhibition or agitation, tremors, etc. which are all real and physical but which can also be influenced by psychological activity like feeling nervous or falling into the trap of obsessively looking for things wrong with you in a way that makes you worried and causes more symptoms to be "found" in a downward spiral of psychosomatic symptom feedback.
If you're given a pill and told you're going to be fine now, it can make you think you can relax and not worry about it anymore, and the relaxation and lack of worrying with your focus on more productive topics can end up resulting in alleviation of symptoms.
