2004/01/01 by Steve Stewart‐Williams, John Podd · 3 citations
Neuroscience · Health Professions · Psychology · Medicine · #Pain Management and Placebo Effect #Neuroscience, Education and Cognitive Function #Film in Education and Therapy #Placebo #Expectancy theory #Conditioning #Classical conditioning #Psychology #Cognition #Cognitive psychology #Social psychology #Developmental psychology #Medicine #Neuroscience #Statistics
paper · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.130.2.324
openalex publication_date 2004/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/21
The authors review the literature on the 2 main models of the placebo effect: expectancy theory and classical conditioning. A path is suggested to dissolving the theoretical impasse that has long plagued this issue. The key is to make a clear distinction between 2 questions: What factors shape placebo effects? and What learning mediates the placebo effect? The reviewed literature suggests that classical conditioning procedures are one shaping factor but that verbal information can also shape placebo effects. The literature also suggests that conditioning procedures and other sources of information sometimes shape conscious expectancies and that these expectancies mediate some placebo effects; however, in other cases conditioning procedures appear to shape placebo effects that are not mediated by conscious cognition.