Placebo Talks

Why do red placebos stimulate whereas blue placebos calm? Why do more placebos work better than few? And why do more expensive placebos work better than cheaper ones? These are some of the key questions that often come to mind when we consider the slippery and counterintuitive field of placebo science.

Rather than consider placebos through the narrow narrative of "sugar pills" in clinical trials, this book provides various perspectives on how psychosocial parameters - such as interpersonal rapport, historical and contemporary context, corporate memory, expectation, empathy, hope, conditioning, symbolic thinking, and suggestion - play a role in forming placebo responses and placebo effects. The book provides modern perspectives on placebos in society, including in education, government, industry, media, and current culture. The editors use three different themes to elucidate and elaborate current conceptualizations of placebos and their accoutrements: the Practioner lens, the Cultural lens, and the lens of placebo science, itself. These accounts by some of the best scholars in the field, make for a cogent triangulation of the qualities and virtues of placebos across a wide range of disciplines relevant to human behavior.

Placebo Talks invites readers to discover how placebos may speak to their own experiences across health, society, sustenance, and related aspects of contemporary life.