[vog]

Okay, fair point.

But then, why prescribe the most expensive placebos where you co-finance societal harmful behavior, rather than just prescribing the "harmless" placebos that are not homeopathy, which are usually even cheaper and don't have any ideological overhead?

[__MatrixMan__]

I'm not aware of any research along these lines, but I suspect that all placebos are not equally effective.

It's a psychological effect, so things like price or flavor or packaging likely affect its strength.

[dmoy]

Yea there is research into it, and you're correct

Color matters: placebo colored pills work better than white pills.

Delivery mechanism matters: placebo injections work better than pills.

Idk about price, packaging, or flavor specifically. But delivery mechanism, color, number of pills, etc I remember from a study.