The Power of the Placebo Effect in Positive Psychology
Medical and psychological communities use the placebo effect to measure the effectiveness of treatment—it’s what the drug companies have to beat in order to be considered effective. The beneficial effect of a placebo is due to the patient’s belief in the treatment alone.
Remember: beliefs change expectations, which influences outcome. When a drug doesn’t do better than the placebo, the study doesn’t get published. In what is known as publication bias, only the studies showing that a drug beat the placebo get into the journals.
This means that if there are a hundred studies and ninety-eight of them don’t show any effect, the scientific community only reads about the two that show the effectiveness of the drug—not the ninety-eight that show the efficacy of the placebo.
The power of the placebo effect
The power of the placebo effect is the very thing you’ve been learning about in this book. Noted physician Herbert Spiegel says,“The placebo effect can occur when conditions are optimal for hope, faith, trust, and love.” Dr. Irving Kirsch, a leading authority studying clinical trials of antidepressants by drug companies, looked at the results and found that nearly 80 percent of the effectiveness of antidepressants can be attributed to the placebo effect. What we believe influences our well-being more than the chemical being given. According to a New York Times article: “The critical factor,” Kirsch says, “is our beliefs about what’s going to happen to us. You don’t have to rely on drugs to see profound transformation.”
What your beliefs can do
Beliefs alone can change results, and this is perhaps most notable in the work of positive psychotherapy. This strength-based approach began with the belief that people can improve their well-being, not just alleviate their suffering. Studies were done by Tayyab Rashid and Marty Seligman using positive interventions (similar to the ones we’ve been exploring); they showed that the outcomes for depression beat the treatment as usual (TAU) psychotherapies for depression, and the TAU plus antidepressants. Why? Because the interventions create positive expectations— beliefs about what’s going to happen to us. In turn, these positive expectations create very positive results.
In one study, the effectiveness of positive psychotherapy was nearly three times greater than typical psychotherapy and antidepressants combined. When people practice their belief that they can have more hope and well-being in their life, the results are powerful. As Dr. Joe Dispenza has said, You Are the Placebo, and if you’ve been learning similar skills and practices by reading positive psychology books or this Hope Habits blog, you are equipped to make better decisions that shift your expectations. If I could offer one powerful sentence, it would be: Hope doesn’t change what we believe—what we believe changes how we hope. Cultivating intentional well-being is changing the beliefs that filter our choices. By addressing the beliefs, we can challenge the decisions we have been making to empower ourselves to make different choices.
The active ingredients of hope
Negativity and uncertainty are the necessary ingredients in activating hope. “What is happening?” is the first question we need to ask ourselves when there is negativity and uncertainty in a situation. This question is designed to help us acknowledge our state of affairs more clearly—to deal with what is, rather than what we assume. Rather than being clouded by denial or misinformation, an honest appraisal lets us more accurately answer the question “What can I do?” This allows us to activate the resources needed. Once we have accurately assessed our situation, we can then ask ourselves what is at our disposal for remedying it.
What gives us power in the midst of life challenges
Depression thrives on isolation. To directly counteract this, the next essential layer in activating hope is getting support. “What do I need?” prompts us to ask—and then accept—the emotional support required. Not only does this support cultivate hope, but it also limits the fuel for depression. All of this brings us to the doorstep of controlling our perspective. “What can I control?” gives us power because it highlights that we are making a decision. As you now know, the seven decisions focus on shifting from old habits of thought to those in line with high hope. Challenging old perspectives takes effort because old beliefs are tenacious. They become our default way of thinking—and to challenge them is to loosen their grip. The thoughts are strong because they think they are protecting us.
