There is a special allure to “magic bullet” treatments. The supplement that promises to wipe away your cortisol. The fountain of youth promised by hormone pellet peddlers. Having a pill/a potion/a silly song-and-dance to solve your [insert ailment here], even if there is little to no science backing for exactly why or how it pulls off such a magic trick.
Combine the allure with our current mind-melting timeline — where pseudoscience reigns supreme, actual science is hampered, and wackadoos in charge of America’s health initiatives continue to make backwards stances on what will “solve” health crises.
Prime time for the placebo effect!
If you’re reading this newsletter, I probably don’t need to guide you through ways to see and ignore the bullshit peddled by the MAHA goofballs or the snake oil salesfolk. So, no, despite the teaser up top, I’m not dedicating this overly wordy essay to taking down the placebo effect. Quite the opposite. I think the placebo effect is real and quite cool. It is easy to exploit (see above and other excellent writing here) and dipping too far into magical thinking can absolutely backfire (see below), but understanding how placebo effect may work in the context of stress perception can open up new avenues for lightening the stress load. Essentially – how do we leverage the powers of placebo?
LINKS:
Magical thinking with Alex Bollen
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