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
Good post indeed like usual....Thanks...

Refreshing to listen a brain unplugged instead of parrots....
Uh, that was a very nice rant but this isn't about measurements and observations are often deceiving. 
Uh, that was a very nice rant but this isn’t about measurements and observations are often deceiving.
dear djones this post was not a rant, like my post is with you now, this was about new hearing discovery....An informative post, different than my ranting post with you or your ranting post against "hearing confidence"....

And no, you are right it was not about measurements because all in audio is not about these necessary and promising but sometimes "deceiving" or successful mesurements ....

And sorry, but saying that "observations are often deceiving" is like saying erection are not always successful....Or saying that the ketchup bottle is often not tightly closed....

It is not a good punchline....It is plain common place in a boring conversation....


Most of it was a rant. The rest wasn't really all that new but more information on the cocktail party problem. I did find the article interesting mainly because the way they moved a step closer was a focus on brain MEASUREMENTS  from fMRIs where speech is localized in the brain. What that has to do with the placebo effect I have no idea.
I was reading one of these articles about placebo effect. Having been told by authoritative sources what a great article it is I of course learned a great deal from it. Until later when I realized the article itself suffered from the placebo effect. So now I read about a dozen articles at random, on random subjects, so as to avoid this harmful effect. The best method I have come up with so far is to read them blind. Wearing a blindfold totally eliminates all placebo effect from reading. Also eliminates all content. Oh well. The important thing when pretending to be a serious audiophile is to overthink everything, preferably to the point your thinking becomes indistinguishable from mindlessness.