The Nocebo Effect
Everyone has heard of the placebo effect, but a lesser known effect is its counterpart, the so-called nocebo effect, which Wikipedia describes as:
A harmful, unpleasant, or undesirable effects a subject manifests after receiving an inert dummy drug or placebo. Nocebo responses are not chemically generated and are due only to the subject’s pessimistic belief and expectation that the inert drug will produce negative consequences.
In today’s Guardian paper, they’ve printed an edited version of Penny Sarchet’s winning essay on nocebo research in the Wellcome Trust science writing competition. Well worth a read.
Rachel Cunliffe is the co-director of CensusAtSchool and currently consults for the Department of Statistics. Her interests include statistical literacy, social media and blogging. See all posts by Rachel Cunliffe »