The Placebo Effect


One of the things that should be taken into account in the evaluation of audio equipment, tweaks, etc is the Placebo Effect.

In the medical world, Placebos (open label or concealed) appear to mostly work on subjective symptoms, such as pain. They don’t work on an objective symptom — something a doctor could see or diagnose, such as a fracture on a bone. Placebos don’t shrink tumors, they don’t change your diabetes, and they’re not going to actually lower your blood pressure for more than 15 minutes, Basically, placebos appear to work on things that pass through the brain’s perceptual systems — where they can prompt the release of opioids and other endorphins (chemicals that reduce pain) in the brain. Bottom line, placebos can result in perceived improvement even where no actual improvement exists.

The same applies to our hobby. Probably too often, we sense improvement in SQ because of the Placebo Effect. Our money spent, hardware bias's, effective marketing, or being influenced by the experience of others (regardless if true), often have us believe that we have obtained improvements that don't really exist. This is not necessarily a bad thing because a perceived improvement, whether real or imagined is still an improvement to the listener. This may explain part of why certain "improvements" can't be measured. 

J.Chip
128x128jchiappinelli
Interesting post. Just a quick question for clarification. You write,

"Bottom line, placebos can result in perceived improvement even where no actual improvement exists."

Since perception (and pain, of course) is strongly associated with physical mechanisms, then a placebo must be doing something to those mechanisms, correct?

If that’s right -- and it seems it must be -- then "perceived improvement" is "actual improvement" it’s just not "longterm improvement."

This seems like a trivial point upon which to ask for clarification, but it’s important to recognize that there is nothing "subjective" at work in placebos. They do have effects, and those effects have physiological concomitants, it’s just that their effects do not indicate they’re addressing underlying mechanisms which, if addressed, could have longer term affects which would be perceptible as well.

Sound right?
I would agree that placebo effect is an actual physical reaction.  The problem I have is when it's denied placebo effect happens in audio perception. 
You stated that placebo effect last about 15 minutes and that something objectively obvious needn't involve it. 

I've pointed out before that placebos, in medicine, work only for so long as the manifest reasons will always assert themselves, and for that reason, is a lousy analogy to use in audio.

Hearing something amiss is no less a way to ascertain something as seeing something is. It's just the use of another sense. Parlor tricks can fool anyone but after a good listening to cues you are familiar with, you can tell the difference. 

The whole purpose of these tests that amateurs require intentionally omits the way one familiarizes oneself with something by hastening the sampling rate. Like I said, it's a parlor trick that can reduce any certainty to no better than that of a coin toss. But they get to say it's all sciencey.

All the best,
Nonoise
The same superficial mind ask for blindtest and allege for placebo about anything....Then accuse audiophiles to refuse blindtest... i love blindtest, organize one near my city i will go..... It is an educational show.... Nothing less, nothing more, save for superficial brain....i dont need blindtest in my assessing experiments amounting to hundred CUMULATIVE small changes....."blackbox" single experiments are enough....

No piano tuner need blindtest....With your own audio system you are the tuner....Let  some idiot figure it out with scientism...



Great post teo_audio
We all know audio reproduction is outside known physics and human audibility limits. To think silly things like placebo effect or confirmation bias could remotely apply to humans in their den of audio tweaks is outlandish not to mention those crazy ABX or DB tests being relevant for anything other than testing mayonnaise.