placebo effect and dirty socks

The placebo effect is the term applied to situations where one’s belief that something will benefit them, benefits them but only as a result of the influence of their belief on their emotions, cognitions, and behavior rather than any innately beneficial properties of the ‘placebo’. In the prototypical situation, the placebo is a sugar pill given to patients who believe it to be a medicine that will alleviate their symptoms, which ultimately does despite having no active substances. In the situation described in this discussion question, not washing the underwear and socks has what could be described as a placebo effect. The first has his socks and underwear remain unwashed, which he believes to carry good luck. He plays better not because by not washing his socks and underwear the good luck of the previous game remained intact, but because the impact his belief had on his emotions, cognition and behavior. For example, perhaps the belief that he didn’t wash away the good luck of the previous game helps ease his anxiety about his performance in the second game, which helps him play more confidently, take more shots, and ultimately play better. He played better not because letting the underwear and socks remain unwashed had an inherently beneficial effect, but because he believed it would, and this belief influenced his behaviour in a beneficial way. This could also be described as an example of a self-fulfilling prophecy, which is when a positive or negative expectation about circumstances or people that affects a person’s behavior towards them in such a way that causes those expectations to be fulfilled. Another example of this would be if a random selection of students is described as a being likely to display a rapid growth in intellectual ability, ultimately displays such growth despite being chosen at random, only because the teacher after being told the results of the arbitrary study paid more attention to those students. Both the placebo effect and the self-fulfilling prophecy are concepts that are appropriate in analyzing the situation because not washing the underwear and socks in and of itself wouldn’t have any consequences on subsequent performance. However, the players' beliefs about the effect washing or not washing the garments mediated the consequences on their performance through the corresponding change in their emotions, cognition, and behavior. This is a demonstration of how meaning systems play a role in psychology. We interpret situations and assign meanings, and these interpretations and meanings influence us, and our changed behavior, emotion or thinking affects us in such a way to mediate a consequence, ostensibly validating our original belief.