totoro;190548 Wrote: > As far as science goes, opaqueice in particular has gone over this one > numerous times. You choose the simplest explanation. If you do an > uncontrolled listening test which shows you that something that > "shouldn't" make a difference does, you can choose the well-established > scientific explanation (placebo), come up with something really > elaborate and complicated, or revert to mysticism. Generally, one would > stick to the first option. If you eliminate the well-established > explanation (placebo) somehow, you now have real data disconfirming the > standard analysis.
In pharmacology, placebo's are using frequently. However, there are very few studies focusing directly on placebo effects, due to the ethics involved in giving a placebo to someone who actually needs medically available treatment. I recently heard a presentation about one of the few studies in this area, which was trying to determine why a placebo response would occur with a particular drug. Some people showed a clear placebo response, and others did not. The experimenters actually found a genetic marker that would indicate whether or not a particular subject was susceptible to a placebo response to that particular compound. No genetic marker, no placebo response. Yep, placebo's are simple, easily understood explanations alright. Sure. Is there a genetic marker for placebo effects in audio? I have no idea. The people who keep using "placebo' as a place holder for things that they don't believe have no idea either. The studies have never been done. If such a marker exists for audio (and we know that it does in at least one area of pharmacology) then we could actually identify people who are vulnerable to placebo effects. Those people would have to report DBT's, while we could accept the word of those people without the genetic marker on what they hear, since we would know that they are not susceptible to placebo effects...alas, at least for now we have no way of knowing who's who. The "placebo effect" in audio has become is a fallback position for people who want to invalidate what others report hearing without going through the work of measuring and listening themselves. In other words, it means absolutely nothing. There are real placebo effects in psychology and pharmacology, but very few people who cite them in audio actually have looked at the research on conditions under which these effects occur, and consequently have astonishingly poor understanding of them. -- hirsch ------------------------------------------------------------------------ hirsch's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=7288 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=33547 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
