Want a sugar pill to work really well? Charge more for it.
A study published on Tuesday shows the well-known “placebo effect” works even better if the dummy pill costs more…
Eighty-five percent of volunteers who thought they were getting a $2.50 pill said they felt less pain after taking it, compared with 61 percent of those who thought they were getting a discounted drug.
The results fit with other studies that show charging more for something makes people value it more. But Ariely said the combination with the placebo effect was especially interesting.
Support your local pharmco, eh?
I don’t see what’s surprising here ?
Every doctor knows that when the patient gives more credit to a pill, it works more, be it because it costs more, because it’s advertised on tv, because our best friend told you it worked a miracle on him(her), because it comes from an exotic country, because it takes the form of an injection ( even better, a series of injections),…
In other news, people tend to form an association between quality and price.
This makes perfect sense. One must believe it’s a really good drug for the placebo effect to work. If it’s so good, it shouldn’t be cheap.
Steve Jobs figured this out decades ago. Apple’s entire business model is based on this.