History Main / PlaceboEffect

* ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda'' has Ping’s “Secret Ingredient Soup”. [[spoiler:As he confides in Po later in the movie, there actually ''is'' no secret ingredient; it’s just plain old noodle soup. It’s the thought there is one that makes people believe it’s so special. It’s this bit of info that helps Po understand the Dragon Scroll’s meaning, which itself falls under a similar philosophy.]]

* In ''Film/SpaceJam'', the Tune Squad has completely given up hope of winning their basketball game against the Monstars until Bugs Bunny gives them 'Michael's Secret Stuff', which buffs them up and gives them the confidence to get back in the game. Of course, the real secret is that it is just water.

--> '''Seven, eight, nine.'''
--> '''I'm losing count again.'''
--> '''Maybe they don't work at all.'''
--> '''Swallow every one of them.'''

* Some public utilities, such as street-crossing signs, elevators, and thermostats, include buttons that don't actually function. The so-called [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placebo_button placebo button]] serves not to operate the machinery but to keep people contented by giving them the illusion of control. For example, when office workers can't change the temperature in the room, they're likely to become disgruntled and upset if they feel too hot or cold; if they believe they can change the temperature, that belief is enough to calm them down. And similarly to the placebo effect in medicine, pressing a "lower temperature" button on a thermostat that you ''think'' works can be enough to make you actually feel cooler.

* MustHaveCaffeine is this trope zigzagged. Caffeine can keep you awake... Just not in the doses the average person takes. Studies demonstrated that eating an apple was more effective for staying awake than drinking a cup of coffee... Up the intake of caffeine enough, though, and it ''will'' keep you awake.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iridology Iridology,]] claiming to diagnose disease and injury by looking closely at the iris of the eye. In the words of Website/TheOtherWiki:
--> Iris texture is a phenotypical feature which develops during gestation and remains unchanged after birth.

* Apparently, some people think gluten is so evil they feel bad after ingesting a nocebo (i.e. food they were told contains gluten, while it really doesn't), even though they are not actually gluten intolerant. YourMindMakesItReal - but still, never self-diagnose. Doctors exist for a reason.

The ''placebo effect'' is where a patient thinks that a 'medicine' is healing them, even though it doesn't have an actual medical effect. The most common use is in drug trials, in which a control group is given a placebo, to compare the effects in case the drug actually is only effective due to the placebo effect, or is even worse. [[note]]This can have uses - particularly where it turns out the placebo and treatment arms of a trial have near-identical outcomes, which means the treatment didn't do anything to help and should not be used - but often, drug companies prefer to do comparison to placebo because they ''don't'' want to do the really ''useful'' test and compare against the currently-considered-best treatment, in case they come up short.[[/note]]

The opposite is the ''nocebo effect'', in which someone believes something is hurting them or making them sick, when it's really not. This could even kill them, as YourMindMakesItReal! Only... not, in [[RealLife reality]]. Although taking a placebo when you ''should'' be taking actual treatment might.

Unfortunately for fans of YourMindMakesItReal, the placebo effect has been thoroughly debunked as an actual effect. It only "works" on things that can't currently be measured, like pain and nausea. Anywhere there's something that can be quantified, it's just a reporting error because patients and doctors both want to help each other. Even in places like pain and nausea, medical researchers are getting really good at identifying the many, ''many'' ways we can Dumbo ourselves into a Jim Crow routine. As a result, research in recent years has demonstrated that pain medicine is less effective than we thought, because they've managed to eliminate more of the nonexistent placebo effect.

Perhaps the golden apple of medical research on placebo happened by accident, [[https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/placebo-improves-asthma-symptoms-not-lung-function#:~:text=Placebo%20treatment%20may%20make%20asthma,how%20doctors%20measure%20successful%20treatment when a study on asthma medication]] had four groups: medicine, placebo, acupuncture (because one of the researchers had a side gig [[spoiler:that didn't work out for him]]), and nothing. They had the patients with the asthma attack undergo one of the four interventions, then measured two things: 1) Do you feel better? 2) Can you actually breathe better? Only one group didn't ''feel'' better; only one group ''breathed'' better. Only the nothing group didn't feel better, only the medicine group could actually breathe better. Placebo (and acupuncture) doesn't actually help you. But because one of the researchers was an acupuncture guy, they had to spin it that placebo "improves subjective outcomes"[[note]]Meaning that if you're in the middle of an asthma attack and someone gives you a MagicFeather, you'll feel better right up to the point you pass out and crash your car into a school bus full of [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot blind hemophiliac orphan nuns]]. Awesome.[[/note]].

* ''Film/TheBirdcage'': Albert's "Pirin tablets" -- he seems to think they're some kind of powerful anti-anxiety medication; they are in fact '''As'''pirin with two letters scraped off. They seem to do the job, though.

** A B-plot from another episode has the MASH experiencing a heat wave that makes everyone miserable. They give Klinger some of the sugar pills claiming they're some sort of new drug that will allow him to feel cooler. He spends the rest of the episode in his regular uniform while everyone else is wearing undershirts.

* ''Series/BlakesSeven''. The CultColony on the penal planet Cygnus Alpha requires everyone to take a medicine for the rest of their lives, to fight off a disease that infects anyone who lands on the planet. Turns out the disease is only a mild infection that the body quickly adapts to, and the 'drug' is just a placebo the cult leader uses to maintain control over the potentially unruly prisoners.

** In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2'', Snake can find muscle relaxant drugs on the Tanker. Calling up Otacon to find out their function leads to him explaining that they eliminate hand shakes with sniper rifles... but that there doesn't appear to be any sniper rifles there, so Snake might try them if he's feeling seasick. Taking them causes the nauseating up-down motion of the in-game camera to gently lessen and then stop. If Snake then calls up Otacon, he reports that his seasickness is gone, to which Otacon bemusedly replies that the drug doesn't do that and he's experiencing the placebo effect.
** In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3'', if Snake finds Russian Glowcaps, he is convinced they will recharge the batteries on his equipment. His radio contacts assure him that this is stupid. If you try eating them anyway, the batteries do charge, and reporting back to Para-Medic causes Sigint to suggest the placebo effect as an explanation (since neither of them have a better one). After agreeing that it is, and that it could be really useful, they both assure him that 'of course eating glowing mushrooms will recharge your batteries' in a very patronizing tone.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iridology Iridology,]] claiming to diagnose disease and injury by looking closely at the iris of the eye. In the words of Wiki/TheOtherWiki:

Perhaps the golden apple of medical research on placebo happened by accident, [[https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/placebo-improves-asthma-symptoms-not-lung-function#:~:text=Placebo%20treatment%20may%20make%20asthma,how%20doctors%20measure%20successful%20treatment when a study on asthma medication] had four groups: medicine, placebo, acupuncture (because one of the researchers had a side gig [[spoiler:that didn't work out for him]]), and nothing. They had the patients with the asthma attack undergo one of the four interventions, then measured two things: 1) Do you feel better? 2) Can you actually breathe better? Only one group didn't ''feel'' better; only one group ''breathed'' better. Only the nothing group didn't feel better, only the medicine group could actually breathe better. Placebo (and acupuncture) doesn't actually help you. But because one of the researchers was an acupuncture guy, they had to spin it that placebo "improves subjective outcomes"[[note]]Meaning that if you're in the middle of an asthma attack and someone gives you a MagicFeather, you'll feel better right up to the point you pass out and crash your car into a school bus full of [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot blind hemophiliac orphan nuns]]. Awesome.[[/note]].

Perhaps the golden apple of medical research on placebo happened by accident, [[https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/placebo-improves-asthma-symptoms-not-lung-function#:~:text=Placebo%20treatment%20may%20make%20asthma,how%20doctors%20measure%20successful%20treatment. when a study on asthma medication]] had four groups: medicine, placebo, acupuncture (because one of the researchers had a side gig [[spoiler:that didn't work out for him]]), and nothing. They had the patients with the asthma attack undergo one of the four interventions, then measured two things: 1) Do you feel better? 2) Can you actually breathe better? Only one group didn't ''feel'' better; only one group ''breathed'' better. Only the nothing group didn't feel better, only the medicine group could actually breathe better. Placebo (and acupuncture) doesn't actually help you. But because one of the researchers was an acupuncture guy, they had to spin it that placebo "improves subjective outcomes"[[note]]Meaning that if you're in the middle of an asthma attack and someone gives you a MagicFeather, you'll feel better right up to the point you pass out and crash your car into a school bus full of [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot blind hemophiliac orphan nuns]]. Awesome.[[/note]].

One difference between fiction and reality is that, unlike in fiction, real placebos often continue to have an effect even if the user finds out it's a placebo - the action of taking the "drug" is usually enough to fool the body. [[note]]It is currently considered likely that this is not anything to do with YourMindMakesItReal, but more to do with the placebo effect being a category of miscellaneous influences, in which to gather spontaneous recoveries, regression to the mean, issues with patient self-reporting, and other statistical and medical quirks.[[/note]]

* In the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' books, this is usually how witches help people; they do something mundane but make people ''think'' that powerful magic is being used. In one example, Granny Weatherwax is taking care of someone with a bad back, and while he's distracted figuring out how to use her potion, she cracks his back into alignment with her foot. (The witches have also done the sinister version, like the one who discovered a thief had stolen from her and did nothing but give him some very knowing looks; he ended up so frightened of her he ran away to sea.)

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTacticsA2'': the [[LizardFolk Bangaa]]-exclusive Tricker [[FantasyCharacterClasses job]] makes use of the nocebo effect to inflict {{Status Ailment}}s in battle: Hypochondria convinces the target that they have been poisoned and Shadow of Doubt undermines the target's confidence, immobilizing them.

* In one ''ComicStrip/GilThorp'' storyline, a player on the basketball team pressurised Bobby, the ADHD student team manager, into giving him Adderall. Bobby gave him asprin with the logo sanded off, and the ruse wasn't discovered until Gil got wind of it and Bobby had to explain that of course he hadn't ''really'' given him Adderall.

** In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2'', Snake can find muscle relaxant drugs on the Tanker. Calling up Otacon to find out their function leads to him explaining that they eliminate hand shakes with sniper rifles... but that there doesn't appear to be any sniper rifles there, so Snake might try them if he's feeling seasick. Taking them causes the nauseating up-down motion of the in-game camera to gently lessen and then stop. If Snake then calls up Otacon, he reports that his seasickness is gone, to which Otacon amusedly replies that the drug doesn't do that and he's experiencing the placebo effect.
** In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3'', if Snake finds Russian Glowcaps, he is convinced they will recharge the batteries on his equipment. His radio contacts assure him that this is stupid. If you try eating them anyway, the batteries do charge, and reporting back to Para-Medic causes Sigint to suggest the placebo effect as an explanation (since neither of them have a better one). After agreeing that it is, and that it could be really useful, they both assure him that 'of course eating glowing mushrooms will recharge your batteries' in a very patronising tone.

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'', Helga bought an anti-love potion that successfully killed her feelings for Arnold. She eventually tries to reverse it by going back to the seller, who admits it was just grape juice.

* ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' had an episode where Dale thought the military had subjected Bill to experiments that made him gain weight, meaning they're responsible for his life going downhill. However, later on Dale mentions that the drug was named "Place-bo", which makes Hank realize that there ''was'' no drug and Bill's poor health was his own fault.

* In one episode of the ''WesternAnimation/{{Dilbert}}'', Dogbert has created bottles of placebo medicine that work even when the user knows it's a placebo, helping Dilbert get over the cold he had in TheStinger. That, and the people he's giving them to are usually too stupid to realize what a placebo ''is''.

* WesternAnimation/{{D|ilbert}}ogbert has a placebo that works even when the user knows it's a placebo. That, and the people he's giving them to are usually too stupid to realize what a placebo ''is''.