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Matthias Görgens's avatar

I wonder whether the placebo effect might have gotten larger in studies, because we got better at making good convincing placebos?

I also read somewhere that placebos work better when they are more expensive. Medicine has famously gotten more expensive in the US (and more than in other countries). So perhaps that causes a bigger placebo effect?

Just speculation. I'd be very interested in more placebo studies.

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Sam's avatar

I’ll read the paper, but my first thought is that his has more to do with better trial design (e.g. the push to preregister and avoid p-hacking) and stricter scrutiny of drugs by US agencies like the FDA.

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