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biology
Your expectation of an outcome can trigger a real result.
The placebo effect demonstrates that physiological responses can be altered by your beliefs about a treatment, even if the treatment is inert.
In studies involving pain relief, participants who expected relief showed measurable reductions in brain activity associated with pain. The brain's anticipation of a change initiates neurochemical responses that mirror the expected physical improvement. Belief is an active, not passive, agent in biological processes.
What you expect to happen changes what your body experiences.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Wager et al., 2004
- What the check found
- Wager et al. (2004) is the seminal fMRI study confirming that the placebo effect involves measurable neurobiological changes in pain-processing centers during the experience of pain.
- Confidence
- Well replicated
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.