Submission #9: How does the ‘placebo effect’ affect our knowledge?

           

 I realize that this question is very broad but I didn’t know the correct way to phrase this idea. Basically, I want to discuss how the ‘placebo effect’ affects our knowledge through sense perception. I watched a Ted- Ed video titled ‘The power of the placebo effect - Emma Bryce’ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z03FQGlGgo0).  This short video talked about the placebo effect, its history, how it is used etc. I found this video very interesting and I was curious on how this effect actually works and how it affects our knowledge and in turn our actions and emotions. To start, the ‘placebo effect’ also called the ‘placebo response’ is a medical phenomenon in which a placebo (which is a fake treatment; an inactive substance such as sugar, distilled water, or saline solution) can sometimes improve a patient's condition simply because the person has the expectation that it will be helpful. Scientists and medical doctors still haven’t found out exactly why this works but they have conducted many experiments that prove that the ‘placebo effect’ is actually real. Many people who were on the placebo [in an experiment] actually started to feel better even though they got no real treatment. There have been theories that this effect is physiological and connects to our body, if we think we are getting better, then we really are getting better. However, as the video mentions, there can be downsides to this because the patient might not actually be getting better, but since they think they are getting better- they might refuse further treatment that has been proven to work and end up getting sicker than before. So, I want to explore how sense perception affects our knowledge and actions when it comes to the ‘placebo effect’.

            Sense perception is our ability to understand the world around us through the use of our five senses; smell, sight, taste, touch and hearing. While we may not use these senses specifically when it comes to how we think our body is acting, we would still use sight as a main way to somewhat diagnose how healthy we are. For example, if I got a cut on my leg, I would see how bad it looks or maybe touch around it to see how much it hurts. In the same way, if I had a condition where I was in a trial and I know that I have a 50/50 percent chance of getting the actual drug or the placebo; when I got the treatment, and if I got the placebo, I would think I got the actual treatment. Because of this, I might stop noticing symptoms that are related to my condition because I think it’s the treatment working. Basically, placebos mess with your head and trick you into thinking that you are getting better even if you are not; this affects your sense perception because you might begin to ignore possible indications that your condition worsened. Although placebos were never meant to work in that way, they unintentionally lead people to believe that their health is improving, again, this can cause problems because they are believing wrong things about themselves which can be dangerous especially with a life- threatening condition.