> In one placebo group, people were told by a friendly, trustworthy, and empathetic researcher that the videos had a physiological impact that activated “early conditioned emotional schemata through the color green.”

> “It was a fake idea, a fake rationale behind it,” Gaab said. “And it worked, people loved it.” It worked as well as a group psychotherapy treatment Gaab and his colleagues used with study subjects a few years earlier.

Were people explicitly told that it was a fake idea at the outset, and went along with the ruse?

Can I buy sugar pills and tell myself “these pills will help with problem X” and have an expectation that they will work? Or do I need to receive “Problem X pills” from some authority in order to see a placebo effect?

I had always assumed that a key component of the placebo effect is not knowing whether you’re receiving the treatment or the control.