Part 1.
Snake Oil, Red Pills & the Magic Feather
If I were a logical person (I’m not), I would probably say that the placebo effect is unscientific, bullshit and no better than snake oil.
But reality is somewhat different. Firstly, I’m not wholly logical (thank goodness!) and secondly, snake oil actually works!
In one of my favorite films, Dumbo (the old version), the young elephant with the huge ears, climbs the ladder with a magic feather clasped tightly in is trunk. That feather gives Dumbo the ability to soar above the crowds and fly. The feather is just an ordinary feather, but Dumbo’s belief that this is a magic feather enables him to achieve the impossible. In the film he loses the feather in his flight, but the magic is already done! It’s not logic, in fact it’s Non-Sense, but it does highlight a fundamental human trait. In order to influence our behavior, we need to sometimes use subversive methods closer to alchemy than hard science.
We live in a world where logic, measurement and statistics are king. We think that’s how we should behave. But the reality of how we think and is somewhat different. Often things that appear to be nonsense are actually Non-Sense and do make sense. Humans behavior is often irrational and emotional and doesn’t fit an economist’s standard model.
I’m highly skeptical about the benefits of creams, pills and potions that have little or no scientific proof of efficacy and depend on a lot of marketing speak. But research has shown that I’m wrong.
Marketing and advertising prey on our deepest (illogical) fears and desires, to persuade us that this or that potion will be the answer
They know that believing it to be so, makes it so. The “truth” of this lies more in Non-Logic and Non-Sense. Placebos work because that’s how we work!
Whist watching a recent program by on BBC, Michael Mosley of “Trust me I’m a doctor” gathered a group of people, with back pain and depression, to test if Placebos actually work. He divided the group into 3, those who got nothing, those who got a placebo and were told it was a new highly effective medicine on trial, and those who got a placebo and were told it was a placebo. The results still astonish me.
With the control group there was obviously little or no change, with the group who got the placebo but didn’t know it was a placebo, there was a considerable improvement. For the group who were told it was a placebo there was also a marked, and in some cases higher, improvement. Go figure!
It seems to me that there are a few possible explanations here. 1) Some things work even though they’re not logical. 2) The ability of the brain and mind to heal is much more powerful than we give it credit for. 3) Our immune system (and other systems) can be triggered by oblique suggestion.
In this last point, the Psychologist and neuroscientist, Nicholas Humphreys, who has studied the placebo effect, says that placebos work by prompting the mind to “invest” immune resources in recovery. So, Placebos and their proven effectiveness, highlight our ability to influence subconscious processes over which we normally have no conscious control.
Neurofen.
As an example, Rory Sutherland (V.P. Ogilvy) quotes the recent case brought by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) against Reckitt Benckiser over 4 products: Neurofen Migraine Pain, Neurofen Tension Headache, Neurofen Period Pain and Neurofen Backpain. They all contained the same amount of active ingredient, ibuprofen lysine, but were packaged and sold differently at a premium from the basic brand because they “targeted” specific pain. The ACCC won the case against Reckitt Benckiser and, in Australia, they could no longer target the same product, in different packages and forms for specifically different pain areas.
Whilst the ACCC facts may be right, their psychology is definitely wrong, and I agree with Rory Sutherland that different proposals of the same product can have different, verifiable results.
It’s the magic feather. The packaging and the promise, assuming we believe it, really do deliver. They become more specifically effective because we believe they are more effective.
Research as shown that branded analgesics are more effective than non-branded. It’s also been shown that RED PILLS are more effective in the treatment of pain than white pills. On paper this seems crazy, but this is the power of a placebo (an oblique influencer) in conjunction with our minds.
That doesn’t seem to make sense. But it does when you realise that it’s not logic and it is Non-Sense.
Logic and free will.
Much as we like to believe it, we cannot influence our subconscious processes directly by logic or free will. We have to influence it by indirect and oblique methods.
Our emotions and feelings, and for that matter most of our actions, happen before we have time to think about them. When you leap out of the way of an oncoming car, you may think you thought about it, but you reacted first and then post-rationalized the event to build a credible story in your mind. The time difference is very small, a few nano-seconds but this gives us the illusion of direct willful action. This has been shown in many studies and is explored in the book “Before you know it” by John Bargh. Our emotions and feelings act much faster than our conscious, logical mind.
There’s a good evolutionary reason for this. Logical and conscious thinking is highly consumptive of energy and is slow. Our immune system is also highly consumptive of resources, so we should only use it when we really need it. In order to survive our ancestors had to be able to escape danger quickly (before we thought about it). Emotions and hormones provided our first, fast line of defense. It appears that free will may be an illusion (but that’s for another day).
Years ago, when I used to work in films, it was very unusual for anyone to get ill during filming, but the moment the filming was over, many of us would get a cold or flu. It seems that we are capable of activating our immune system when we have an important task to complete. When the need changes, we let go.
Feelings can be inherited, whereas reasons have to be learnt. You can’t depend on each generation to teach its offspring to avoid danger, you need it in-built in order to survive. That’s what emotions do right from the get-go. For instance, we are all (or certainly most of us) born with a built-in fear of snakes. Experience may teach us why, but the reaction is there first.
Placebos really do work because that’s how our minds work.
In the next blog I’ll look at how this principle is used to manipulate our thinking and persuade us that we can fly….
