In one of our first episodes of Healthcare Triage, we discussed how placebo controlled randomized controlled trials showed that sugar doesn’t make kids hyper. Placebos, or fake therapies, are important because people who think they’re getting a treatment will often feel an effect:
Austin wrote about the placebo effect at length in a recent NYT Upshot piece, and much of this episode was adapted (with his permission) from that. Those of you who want to read more or see references can find them in his piece.
