ABSTRACT
Plato exclaimed that human sensory knowledge is nothing more than subjective. Each second of each day, our brains are filtering and categorizing all that we see and hear, logging that which is deemed useful or important, and ignoring that which is not. Moreover, all of our decisions are influenced by prior experiences and engrained biases. The clearest path to truth, therefore, is to liberate oneself from raw intuition, temper it with intellect, and strive to make decisions that are objective and unbiased. Chapter 5 explores these notions, and introduces the placebo effect, the belief or expectation of product effectiveness, despite no obvious direct physiological outcome. Placebo effects are scrutinized from both a historical and modern perspective, and its mechanisms of action briefly summarized. A number of examples of placebo effects in sport and exercise are presented, collating studies in sports drinks, caffeine supplements, and altitude training. The price of placebo and some of its critical consequences are speculated.
