Posts by andrewf

Google, Bing, Yahoo! data hoarding is like homeopathy. It doesn't work – new study claims

Re: Homeopathy doesn't work??

Then I seem to be in complete agreement with you.

Re: Homeopathy doesn't work??

The effect is powerful and real, and yes it is why studies are double blinded.

The problem comes when you try to DO anything with this "powerful" effect. This is where you find that studies showing it is possible are not properly blinded, or rely on "self-reported pain scales", or just are poorly designed altogether.

Placebo is an umbrella term for all of the things that can mess with your results in a study. It is not some mystical thing that can be used to treat anything in the real world!

I confess I haven't thought this analogy through much, but I guess it's like saying that a bug in a program did something cool so we should just forget the program and build a solution out of just the bugs!

Re: Homeopathy doesn't work??

Unsurprisingly, it turns out that studies showing the power of placebo all seem to be along the lines of "self-reported pain scale" or similar, and when you really look into them the much more logical conclusion is that placebo (a.k.a. "anything that could obscure the effect you are trying to measure") has exactly the effect that it should. Pill colour makes no difference, sham surgery does not work as well as real surgery (unless the real surgery doesn't work) and the power of the mind cannot cure you.