The placebo effect seems to be stronger than we thought. Doctors from the Harvard University Medical School (USA) have experimentally confirmed that a placebo helps even those who know that they are given «pacifiers» *.
Psychologies: Why useless substances work?
Sergey Enikolopov, clinical psychologist: Because they are prescribed by a doctor. If the doctor is attentive to me, then my health is under control. We believe that a specialist does nothing just like that, which means that he is waiting for our condition to improve. All psychotherapy is based on this phenomenon of faith in someone who takes care of us. The unconscious belief that the doctor has magical, healing powers is a manifestation of our magical thinking.
Claude Levi-Strauss in his work «The Sorcerer and His Magic» just shows that at all times the ritual actions of shamans and sorcerers played a greater role in curing the sick than medicinal herbs **.
Everyone has a negative experience of dealing with domestic medicine. How does it affect our trust in the doctor?
S. E .: We trust doctors less than Western people. But the phenomenon of magical thinking is such that a person cannot heal himself, he needs a significant figure — be it a doctor, a priest or a psychologist. It is important that he be believed. The healing mechanism of faith has not been studied by science. But trust in a doctor certainly enhances the effect of any treatment, not just a placebo.
* See http://hms.harvard.edu for more details.
** K. Levi-Strauss «Structural Anthropology». Academic project, 2008.