Expensive placebos and recognizing your dog by smell

Placebos are not supposed to do anything, yet they kind of work. Well, then why not sell them at a high price like real medicine? Turns out, maybe that’s not such a bad question.

Dogs have fantastic noses and can identify their owners by smell. Can humans return the favor? Can dog owners identify their dogs by smell?

In this episode, Lu and Tirth discuss how more expensive placebos are more effective than cheaper ones and whether dog owners can recognize their dog’s smell.

Timestamps:

• 0:00 Intro
• 0:55 Dave talk; Tirth’s beef
• 5:38 Placebo studies
• 21:02 Dog smelling study
• 29:52 What did you learn today, outro

Article link:

• Waber et al., 2008. Commercial features of placebo and therapeutic efficacy. Journal of the American Medical Association. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/181562

• Espay et al., 2015. Placebo effect of medication cost in Parkinson disease: a randomized double-blind study. Neurology. https://www.neurology.org/doi/10.1212/WNL.0000000000001282

• Diaz-Lago et al., 2023. Expensive seems better: The price of a non-effective drug modulates its perceived efficacy. Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications. https://cognitiveresearchjournal.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s41235-023-00463-4

• Wells et al., 2000. The discrimination of dog odours by humans. Perception. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1068/p2938

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