placebos over peer pressure

the placebo affect is one of the coolest psychological phenomena ever. if you're not familiar with the placebo affect, here's how it works: if people believe something to be true, their bodies will act accordingly. for example, in this ---> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiNPhQJXpuQ episode of "freaks and geeks", a tv show from 1999 about being in high school in the 80's, three boys replace a sister's keg with non alcoholic beer at her party. because of the placebo affect, all of the party goers experience drunkenness even though they have not consumed any alcohol.

i thought this was so cool when i saw it. i mean, what a perfect way to get yourself out of a sticky situation! for instance, say you are pressured into throwing a party. instead of facing the embarrassment of calling the whole thing off, just buy a keg of non alcoholic beer. your rep remains intact, everyone is safe, you haven't broken any laws, and you have a great time at a party. see, disgruntled teens? science is applicable to the "real world" too!

but seriously, the placebo effect actually has useful applications too. just think about what it could do for medicine. instead of taking icky drugs with dangerous side effects (side effects may include nausea, internal bleeding, and the loss of your left arm), doctors could give their patients sugar pills for a ton of illnesses. some may argue that this is not morally okay, but what if patients signed a form that gave doctors permission to use placebos where proven effective? the patients would never know what medicine was real and what was fake, but if it works, why does it matter?

even if we don't use it, the placebo effect is still really cool. learn more about it on radiolab, a book, or the internet. i promise it will be interesting.