What is it about the placebo effect that makes it so hard to study scientifically?
The idea of ritual is what science detests. The scientific revolution is about getting rid of culturally embedded behaviors, uncovering natural universals. A drug is a natural universal. Penicillin works in Africa or Asia. A ritual depends on belief, religion and imagination. Ritual is specific to culture. Placebo effect is presumably about the appearance of things, the belief in things, the ritual of things. There is something inherently unscientific about it. It may be that ordinary people have demanded the investigation of alternative medicine. It may be that alternative medicines have demanded the placebo investigation. But I think that the NIH has really accelerated the placebo stuff. The big NIH conference on the placebo effect in 2000 was very important in initiating this conversation. NIH is a governmental bureaucratic institution, but it also really tries to be innovative and look into important questions. You were an activist in your student days. Do you think of your work to
