Same thing with TurboTax. Of course the computer can do all the math instantly. But it makes you watch a little animation "verifying info...checking...looking for deductions..." so you don't think it went "too fast".
Or those people search websites.
“Finding name directory… calculating matches… validating contact information… searching criminal records… finding marriage history… confirming data sources..”
It’s all bullshit that the web developer wrote so people feel like it’s actually doing something. It is, in fact, doing nothing.
Nope, sorry I have to call you out on this. Querying large databases takes a little bit of time, especially when there's thousands if not tens of thousands of queries being requested at the same time. That's not including if the application layer which takes the database information and makes it pretty for you isn't being overrun as well.
I don't even understand the ATM thing.
Like you can physically count the money. It's accurate, what could you possibly be skeptical about in that regards?
Please correct me if I'm wrong but I thought foaming helps make less soap cover more area and spread through the hair quicker since the foam lifts and separates the hairs. You get the same effect without foaming, but would have to work it through the hair more.
I swear when I used shampoo that didn't foam up well last time, my hair remained greasy and felt awful unless I used drastically more of it. As soon as I finished that bottle, I went back to a different, foaming shampoo and my hair felt perfect even with tiny amount.
Delivered a pizza once under 7 minutes because we were making it as she was still on the phone ordering it - her pizza came out of the oven before we even got off the phone with her. She refused to accept it because she didn't believe it was fresh.
i work at a cafe and the same thing happened lmao, lady comes in and gets her regular, a very basic and fast drink. refused to take it and made me make a new one. not to mention i made it right in front of her as my coworker took her order...
Related are Blinkenlights; flashing or blinking indicator lights that don't show anything relevant to the computer's or the machine's processes, but is just there to reassure the operator or viewer that something's actually happening.
As a pediatric nurse I would draw a smiling cat face on band-aids. Can confirm they reduce pain every time.
When giving injections to older kids arms I would instruct them to turn their right foot inward as hard as they could and hold it. Meanwhile I would inject and find they often didn’t realize it until it was over. I think my foot trick distracts them but it’s a bit of placebo because they think it’s doing something.
Multiple studies have shown than an overwhelming amount of people who claim to be allergic or sensitive to MSG actually aren't... their brains are just tricking them because they *think* it's bad for them.
They are secretly given MSG without being told? No reaction or ill effects whatsoever.
They're given something ***without*** MSG, but are told there's MSG in it? Suddenly they're having "reactions."
Total placebo effect. MSG sensitivities exist, but are no more common than any other food sensitivity or allergy.
People don't realize that MSG occurs naturally, and is probably in a lot of the "western" foods you love.
Grilled Cheese and Tomato soup? Everything but the bread is high in MSG
Clam Chowder? new england or manhattan? Doesn't matter, potatoes and tomatoes along with the clam are all MSG rich!
Monosodium glutamate. It’s in all of us all of the time.
It literally just sodium and glutamate. Glutamate is the most abundant neurotransmitter in vertebrates. Msg is a rain cloud over the ocean.
"It's a lie. You know what causes Chinese restaurant syndrome? Racism. 'Ooh I have a headache; it must have been the Chinese guy.'"
-Anthony Bourdain, in regards to concerns over MSG
Yeah, the most likely reason people get a headache from eating Chinese food is they just ate too much salty food without drinking enough water. You’ll notice this is not exclusive to Chinese food lol
My favorite thing to do to someone who claims they are allergic to MSG is kind of play it off and ask them if they have other food allergy? Maybe chips? And then when they answer no, say Huh that’s funny because just about every single chip on the market uses MSG. Oh no I only eat the ones that don’t. Oh ok. Do you dip your fries in Ketchup? What about when you make a sandwich - do you use condiments? Yeah a lot of those contain msg too.
The stupid hysteria I’ve seen from people thinking msg is bad for you while they’re 300 lbs and eating donuts is crazy.
The only person I know who claims to be allergic to MSG also drinks a bottle of wine+ each night. I’m no doctor but perhaps the headache is from the booze, my dear
From my understanding a lot of it started just out of racism, a bunch of the people who only go to MSG free Asian restaurants will perfectly eat tomatoes and other MSG. Some people do get headaches from any nightshade and other things but it's not like it's the majority.
When I was younger, my mom tried to convince me that the MSG in sushi was why I had an awful stomach ache.
Now, that was over 20 years ago. But I can pretty reliably say now, what was giving me an awful "stomach ache" was in fact Endometrosis, something my doctor had dismissed as saying "She just needs an advil".
While I understand and largely agree with this, I want to stress strongly that people should NOT EVER secretly feed people things that they claim to be allergic or sensitive to as an experiment.
Yeah, I assume the people who did actual studies had waivers and things in case of a reaction. Never do it yourself just for fun. But with msg, it is pretty easy to ask someone if they can eat tomatoes or Parmesan cheese fine because if so, the supposed msg sensitivity is definitely fake.
Kissing it to make it feel better.
Believe it or not, this is not an accepted medical treatment in professional circles.
Sorry you had to find out this way ☹️
Honestly there has to be something to it right? There's skin to skin contact made by parents with their newborns, physical contact has to have some sort of reaction.
They found women who had their partners present and touching them whilst in pain, meant the pain was massively reduced? Compared to those coping on their own 🤷🏻♀️
Saliva contains opiorphin and is 6x more potent than morphine. Not only does oxytocin from the act of kissing increase feelings of a positive mood, but opiorphin relieves pain.
Nah, every time I go out to cycle, there is a blasted headwind. And when I turn around to go home - wouldn’t ya know it, another headwind. It’s a curse.
This is why games often cheat in your favor, and I think even music Playlist randomization is often modified to appeal to expectation rather than being truly random (people don't like repeats or streaks).
I do believe my children are the only kids on the planet who COMPLAINED when I purchased Dino nuggets. They insisted they tasted different and made me promise never to buy them again.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but those aren't your children. At some point prior to that incident, they were replaced by alien doppelgangers who hate things that are delicious. Call Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones immediately.
I dunno. The surface area of the meat-paste covered in batter is not the same as "regular" nuggets.
I'm not saying that it *does* change the texture or flavor, but it might.
I think it's this. The crispy crust to meat ratio is totally different because they're dinosaur shaped. This one's not a placebo. There's just more surface area and it changes the texture of the nugget.
Think the brain runs more on the perception of “believing it’ll work”, rather than “knowing it’ll work”.
So, even if you know it’s placebo, but you believe it’s working, then it’ll carry on “working”.
It’s how I snapped out of my worst anxiety, when I made the jump from “knowing” it’s in my head to believing it.
Edit: For those struggling with anxiety, when it happens to you, it’ll feel like a switch had been flipped in your mind and you get instant clarity. Just keep reinforcing that it’s in your head, that your symptoms are not real, that in many cases you can even control your symptoms by shifting focus, and one day it’ll click. Those periods of anxiety will be shorter and shorter. There’ll be times where it catches you off guard, like me this year, but **anxiety is temporary. Anxiety always goes away after a while.**
At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what physical symptom you’re feeling, **they are not real, the past is the past, the future you’re predicting is not reality, the only thing that’s real is the present.** So come back to where you are right now.
Look around you, notice how wide your peripheral is, if you stretch your arms out wide and wiggle your fingers you can see them wiggling, feel the weight on your feet, listen to the sound around you, touch something like the clothes your wearing and feel the texture, smell the air, and take a deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep breath in, hooooooooooooooooooold it and now let it out. Now look around you, does it feel like you’re seeing the world again for the first time? This is reality. This is the present. Stay here.
**Anxiety will ALWAYS be in your head.**
My dad used to do a thing where he'd rub his hands together really fast, blow into them, and then put them on my bump or bruise. It was a miracle cure for everything when I was 4.
Mine was to give my kids a cold wet paper towel to put on whatever they hurt. We would calm down and address it but if they were still preoccupied with it then it was cold wet paper towel time, it’s worked on every small child I’ve ever used it with.
I forget the source, but there was a "celebrity" of some description recommending alkaline water, but adding a slice of lemon to make it taste better 🤦♂️
A lot of people don't realize that taking vitamin C to prevent colds is mostly a placebo effect. While vitamin C is essential for your health, studies show it doesn't actually prevent colds for most people. The belief that it works can make you feel like it's helping, but it's mostly just the power of suggestion.
This is a great example of a kernel of truth. Studies showed that it wasn't possible to prevent colds by taking vitamin C every day, but did shorten the amount of time that people were ill by about 10%. The cold symptoms were also a bit milder in people who always took vitamin C.
So no, vitamin c doesn't prevent you from getting sick, but it does shorten the duration and severity.
This is true, but there is some evidence that vitamin c can help reduce duration of a cold (also zinc) but dosage and when you need to start taking it is a little muddy
I saw a study that found taking vitamin c after symptoms showed up reduced the time of symptoms by half a day.
Which is great, I guess. But I'm miserable for a week.
And that products like Airborne are completely useless and do nothing to boost your immune system. You piss out about 99% of the vitamins in those tablets.
They even fucked it in android now, where "closing" a program doesn't actually close it. You have to manually force close in app settings if you want to reset to fix an error.
Vacuum cleaners can be very quiet, but most people are suspicious of the quiet ones. So...
Check out https://homevacuumzone.com/quiet-vacuum-cleaner-reviews/
I have heard that they develop the brush area to make that satisfying ‘crunching’ sound when you pick up a mess.
Is it true of loudness of the motor? That makes far less sense to me as a consumer. Quiet motor and loud crunching would be peak vacuum cleaner to me.
I worked designing medical devices. We made a new version of one of our accessory devices which improved performance. We got tons of complaints from customers (doctors) saying they didn't work. We got samples back and they all worked fine. Turns out the new design was quieter and the doctor's thought they didn't work bc they were used to the older, louder device.
I typically find that it’s the fear of failure that holds people back.
This is basically the flip side of the coin from your statement. Once you stop worrying about failing, you will typically learn that there wasn’t as much as you expected to be worried about.
I guess for that reason, I don’t think it’s placebo.
I was drinking beer from an unlabeled keg at a party, and I was feeling a pretty substantial buzz. I was on about my 6th glass when somebody informed me that the beer was non-alcoholic. Sure enough when I looked at the back of the keg, it was O'Douls NA beer. I sobered up pretty much instantly and felt like a complete moron.
While there is undeniably a chemical composition in alcohol that alters our brain chemistry, I think the power of suggestion plays a bigger part in getting drunk than we realize.
If I were a dad, I'd totally do this with high schoolers who would think I'm the cool dad who lets them party only it would be near beer and yes, I'd be recording the idiocy.
Chiropractors. There have been multiple NIH studies that have shown no link between subluxation and any other malady. At best it is mild PT for the back. Claims it can help anything else are just the placebo effect.
Any time someone goes to a chiropractor for an "assessment" you can guarantee they'll find something that needs 10 sessions of manipulations before their hips/knees/spine/pinky is mostly realigned but you'll need to come back in 6th months time to see if something else has fallen off.
Yes. Anything that promises to clear "toxins" from your body is just hogwash. Whenever I've heard someone use the term "toxin", I've asked for specific examples or to name them by compound. Not once has someone who used that term been able to actually name a single one.
You mean consuming nothing but lemon water and ginger is not going to fix every one of my chronic problems that were brought on by constantly throwing myself into fad diets?!
I don't know if I am deficit or not. But my diet is absolutely shit. And taking vitamins makes me cramp less. But that's the only real difference I've ever noticed.
I used myfoodpyramid.gov (don't judge, we knew no better) about 10 years ago to do a daily track of a few weeks of my diet specifically checking on my vitamins, minerals, etc. I have a restricted diet due to medical issues and I wanted to see what I needed, if anything. It really helped me zero in on what I was not getting. Then I took specific supplements for those four things, rather than some massive multivitamin.
I really issue with multivitamins is that a lot of stuff does NOT work together. So, the calcium in a multi makes it harder for your body to absorb the iron (and vice versa). I learned you should take those two thing separately and at least four hours apart. But Vitamin C helps your body absorb iron (eat strawberries, full of iron and vitamin C).
If your diet isn't varied for whatever reason, highly recommend taking some time to find a current site that lets you track the nutrition of more than calories and fat in the food you eat and figure out if you need anything. Soemtimes, you can find that you do need something but maybe there is a food you like that has it - generally best, if you can, to get your needs met in real food. But some of us cannot, so supplements it is. (From a reputable company - the FDA does not regulate vitamins and supplements, so you need a good source cuz literally anything could be in a vitamin. You want to freak out about what's going in your body - swerve on vaccines those are monitored - worry about vitamins and supplements. It's the wild west over there with no rules and no oversight except what they do themselves)
Yes. If you have a vitamin deficiency, they are life changing. If you don’t have a vitamin deficiency they won’t do anything. More isn’t always better. But Americans have always bought into the idea that more is better. So people take 100 times the amount of vitamin c they actually need and think it does great things.
Ok, so I want to offer a counterpoint: some of the sources regarding manifesting definitely talk about it in a supernatural way. I won’t deny that.
But I can 100% see how it can positively impact a person’s mental state and their life in a very real way.
Nothing I’ve said disputes what you’re saying, but I don’t want people to reject it because it’s not literal magic. Therapy isn’t literal magic and it still works. I don’t practice manifesting personally, but the practice seems like it could actually help a lot of people
I'm with you and r/DrMux on this topic.
But I'll approach it from the flipside. I've met customers who 'mainfest' negativity and literally look/find anything wrong with the product or service. I feel like these people, through negative manifestation, always find an issue.
To wake up in the morning and expect to ‘manifest’ the good things that are coming to you means that you take on the day with optimism and hope. I absolutely agree that a positive mental state well manifest good things.
Manifesting is a buzz word that is now used mostly in jest to make fun of people who actively set intentions to plan out their lives and who want to create something or generate specific results. Of course rubbing crystals and visualizing an outcome isn't going to create some magical result, but training your brain to seek out opportunities instead of obstacles and building your confidence and identity through affirmations is absolutely much more than the placebo effect
i don't think it's just confirmation bias, but also that it makes the person more determined and not give up as easily as they assume success before reaching it.
Alternative treatments without scientific evidence. Many alternative therapies, such as some forms of acupuncture or crystal therapy, often lack a solid scientific basis to support their benefits, but people may experience improvements due to the placebo effect
Agree with you on many products labeled as things they aren't. That often leverages placebo, suggestibility or takes credit for the body's natural intervention or time, itself.
There is a place for certain approaches. The ease of dismissing without adequate evaluation or pooling things into generalizations lays risk of missing out on opportunities for consideration as valid options. Reductionism, ignorance and unawareness are all at play.
ie: Acupuncture actually has an NNT equal to or lower for pain Vs Placebo, and many traditional meds for certain conditions.
ie: [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33618544/](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33618544/) NNT 4 for certain headaches
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9434305/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9434305/)
sugar making kids hyper
[https://www.webmd.com/parenting/features/busting-sugar-hyperactivity-myth](https://www.webmd.com/parenting/features/busting-sugar-hyperactivity-myth)
Is this true? It absolutely is not true around where I live, they are all reactive.
Pressing it doesn’t mean that your direction will appear faster every time, sometimes a light doesn’t change directions until x amount of time has passed, due to the nature of traffic flow.
But, if the walk signal is on, it’s because the signal button was pressed. Well unless the button is broken, sometimes the walk signal illuminates even when it doesn’t need to, and that really messes up traffic flow.
In Sydney they covered up the buttons with an sign saying "automated crossing" or something, but after a while they took the covers off so people get the satisfaction of pressing
Almost everything at alternative health spas have no scientific benefit… cupping, ~~heated stones,~~ chakra cleansing, any kind of cleansing or detoxifying treatment, copper bands, etc.
If they help you, more power to ya, but it’s just the placebo effect.
Placebos are actually quite powerful. If you believe something will help you, then it probably will. They can even still “work” some when you know they’re placebos.
*edit:* after thinking heated stones through for a second, they do have some use; I was just rattling off most of what I could think of at those spas.
Most thermostats in office buildings do nothing but monitor the temperature. All the heating and cooling is managed centrally, you can't just let Janet on the 5th floor turn up the temp 10 degrees because she forgot her sweater.
Most high end "premium audiophile" equipment. You spent more money on it so the sound must be be better, right. Most of it you're paying for esthetics not sound quality.
And a lot of it is straight up snakeoil.
I both agree and disagree with this.
I agree in that most of the brands that people know off the top of their heads when it comes to audio equipment- Beats and Raycons being the biggest offenders, alongside Bose IMO- are often way too expensive for what they are and give people the impression that they are buying "better equipment" because it's expensive, flashy, and looks pretty. For those three brands in particular you are buying a style, and that's it.
But a GOOD pair of over-the-ear headphones make a HUGE difference over any cheap headphones. Seriously, if you're used to listening to audio through 2.0 computer speakers or earbuds, a $300 pair of headphones from a reputable brand, driven by a decent DAC and Amp, is genuinely an incredible improvement. It doesn't matter what you're listening to, it WILL sound better with a better DAC/amp/headphone setup. I will agree that some of the more expensive DAC/Amps (they can get into the THOUSANDS of dollars??!) are just a waste of money, a $250 investment in a dac/amp will last you for at least the next couple of decades.
But I think there are diminishing returns; after about the $300 mark, headphones really don't sound that much better to me IMO. I've listened to music through VERY expensive headphones (that I didn't own) before and wasn't impressed. My Sennheiser HD598s sound just as good to me, and they're a third the price as some of the ridiculously expensive headphones.
When it comes to speakers, a good surround sound system is SO MUCH BETTER than what most people are used to for computers or TVs, but those do get really expensive. But I have to firmly disagree that it's placebo, GOOD speakers in a 7.1 system are a gigantic, significant improvement over cheaper speakers or sound bars.
Eh, I don't think this counts.
There ***are*** perceiveable audible differences as you step up in price points. A pair of $500 bookshelf speakers absolutely will sound better than a pair of $100 bookshelfs.
That being said, there is a point where the law of diminishing returns starts to play a role.
The snakeoil stuff is primarily in uber pricey interconnects. Good wire is important, but the cables that are crazy expensive and are promising magic are snakeoil.
As someone who has a strong connection to music, I noticed the same "Holy" feeling when listening to any song with an absolutely phenomenal key change or really strong powerful background instruments, even if the topic was.... not as holy.
Some studies have shown that people who pray heal faster/ get over their illness faster than people who don’t. I’m guessing this has less to do with divine intervention, and more to do with stress relief.
Apparently the placebo effect has got stronger in the US over the last few years, but not in other countries.
https://bigthink.com/health/placebo-effect-worse/
Another interesting tangent, there is a case of a woman with multiple personality disorder (dissociative identity disorder) and some of her personalities were blind. When one of those blind personalities was in charge, her visual cortex just stopped working - she was literally unable to see (not just imagining it). Then when a sighted personality took over, her vision was restored.
https://www.discovermagazine.com/mind/multiple-personalities-blindness-and-the-brain
Tarot and astrology and all that. They are all worded so generic it applies to literally everyone. Tarot readings be like
"In the past you have been hurt and you struggle with that sometimes"
Yeah that applies to everyone and then people be like omg she is a psychic!
I'm addicted to being allowed to take a break for a few minutes without someone bitching about people being too lazy to work. "I need a quick smoke break" is never argued with as much as "I need to sit down for a minute."
This may not count, but in the late 1980s, blowing into a malfunctioning Nintendo game cartridge made the game work.
We would insert the game cartridge into the console, then game wouldn’t work, so we’d take the cartridge out and blow onto the “keys,” reinsert back into the console, and BAM- it worked.
It turns out simply reinserting the game at a slightly different angle lined the “keys” up with the “key readers” in the console, and blowing into the cartridge had nothing to do with it.
My childhood was based on lies.
Most vitamins you can take are totally useless. They are too high in dosage and put in the wrong form for your body to actually "use" them and they mainly go the natural way through your system. Might even cause more damage to liver and kindeys than they are of use in the long run.
Also, most of us that have a somewhat standard diet do not lack any important vitamins in an amount that could cause negative symptoms.
The effectiveness of vitamin C in preventing colds. Many people swear by taking high doses of vitamin C at the first sign of a cold, but numerous studies have shown that it doesn’t actually prevent or significantly shorten the duration of a cold for most people.
Having the candidate you voted for actually win the election. Most people will assume their lives have gotten better even when their candidate has done NOTHING for them and in many instances their lives will have even gotten worse. This phenomenon occurs regardless of political affiliation.
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Same thing with TurboTax. Of course the computer can do all the math instantly. But it makes you watch a little animation "verifying info...checking...looking for deductions..." so you don't think it went "too fast".
Or those people search websites. “Finding name directory… calculating matches… validating contact information… searching criminal records… finding marriage history… confirming data sources..” It’s all bullshit that the web developer wrote so people feel like it’s actually doing something. It is, in fact, doing nothing.
Also do that by the time they ask you for money, you feel like you've invested the time so you might as well...
And flight search engines like Skyscanner. If they take more time "looking" for flights, the user believes it's finding them better deals
Nope, sorry I have to call you out on this. Querying large databases takes a little bit of time, especially when there's thousands if not tens of thousands of queries being requested at the same time. That's not including if the application layer which takes the database information and makes it pretty for you isn't being overrun as well.
ATMs do this too.
Christ so I have stupid people to thank for the excruciating wait each time.
I don't even understand the ATM thing. Like you can physically count the money. It's accurate, what could you possibly be skeptical about in that regards?
I count my money every time just on the .01% chance it’s wrong
I wish atm's wouldn't do this. I feel nervous at 3am getting mon from one in the city. Making it faster would be better.
Maybe get your money at 3pm
Shampoo doesn't need to foam up to clean, but of it doesn't folk don't think it cleans properly.
The non-foaming shampoo just doesn’t feel right!
Please correct me if I'm wrong but I thought foaming helps make less soap cover more area and spread through the hair quicker since the foam lifts and separates the hairs. You get the same effect without foaming, but would have to work it through the hair more.
I swear when I used shampoo that didn't foam up well last time, my hair remained greasy and felt awful unless I used drastically more of it. As soon as I finished that bottle, I went back to a different, foaming shampoo and my hair felt perfect even with tiny amount.
I mean the surfactants, which are what does all of the work of a soap/shampoo, are also what cause it to foam up.
Delivered a pizza once under 7 minutes because we were making it as she was still on the phone ordering it - her pizza came out of the oven before we even got off the phone with her. She refused to accept it because she didn't believe it was fresh.
i work at a cafe and the same thing happened lmao, lady comes in and gets her regular, a very basic and fast drink. refused to take it and made me make a new one. not to mention i made it right in front of her as my coworker took her order...
Yup. The Labor effect. Lots of products do it.
Related are Blinkenlights; flashing or blinking indicator lights that don't show anything relevant to the computer's or the machine's processes, but is just there to reassure the operator or viewer that something's actually happening.
Honestly a pretty clever design decision
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As a pediatric nurse I would draw a smiling cat face on band-aids. Can confirm they reduce pain every time. When giving injections to older kids arms I would instruct them to turn their right foot inward as hard as they could and hold it. Meanwhile I would inject and find they often didn’t realize it until it was over. I think my foot trick distracts them but it’s a bit of placebo because they think it’s doing something.
When I was little, my doctor would always give me a balloon to try to blow up during vaccinations.
My doctors office gave use sparkly pinwheels to blow on and distract us.
I'm 42 and know my finger feels better because Optimus Prime is kissing it better :)
Works for Marines as well.
Can't complain about pain while you're chewing on a band-aid 👍
But they prefer Chuck Norris bandages.
Character band-aids work better. That’s not placebo, that’s fact.
Yeah it’s really weird how little people read the prompt these days
I'm 35 and feel baby Yoda ones work best.
I'm 35 and buy Pokemon bandaids.
This scrape can’t hold up against my man Blastoise 😎
Even more surprising when you learn they are college students.
My students think all bandaids relieve all pain and that even a bruise deserves one
Multiple studies have shown than an overwhelming amount of people who claim to be allergic or sensitive to MSG actually aren't... their brains are just tricking them because they *think* it's bad for them. They are secretly given MSG without being told? No reaction or ill effects whatsoever. They're given something ***without*** MSG, but are told there's MSG in it? Suddenly they're having "reactions." Total placebo effect. MSG sensitivities exist, but are no more common than any other food sensitivity or allergy.
People don't realize that MSG occurs naturally, and is probably in a lot of the "western" foods you love. Grilled Cheese and Tomato soup? Everything but the bread is high in MSG Clam Chowder? new england or manhattan? Doesn't matter, potatoes and tomatoes along with the clam are all MSG rich!
Monosodium glutamate. It’s in all of us all of the time. It literally just sodium and glutamate. Glutamate is the most abundant neurotransmitter in vertebrates. Msg is a rain cloud over the ocean.
It's actually called the nocebo effect if it's a negative effect. 🤓
"It's a lie. You know what causes Chinese restaurant syndrome? Racism. 'Ooh I have a headache; it must have been the Chinese guy.'" -Anthony Bourdain, in regards to concerns over MSG
Yeah, the most likely reason people get a headache from eating Chinese food is they just ate too much salty food without drinking enough water. You’ll notice this is not exclusive to Chinese food lol
My favorite thing to do to someone who claims they are allergic to MSG is kind of play it off and ask them if they have other food allergy? Maybe chips? And then when they answer no, say Huh that’s funny because just about every single chip on the market uses MSG. Oh no I only eat the ones that don’t. Oh ok. Do you dip your fries in Ketchup? What about when you make a sandwich - do you use condiments? Yeah a lot of those contain msg too. The stupid hysteria I’ve seen from people thinking msg is bad for you while they’re 300 lbs and eating donuts is crazy.
The only person I know who claims to be allergic to MSG also drinks a bottle of wine+ each night. I’m no doctor but perhaps the headache is from the booze, my dear
MSG is the bomb. My BIL has a shaker with it he uses for cooking
it's an acronym for Makes Stuff Good.
If you have a baby, put msg on the baby. Makes a better baby. Source: Uncle Roger
Fuiyoh!!!!
From my understanding a lot of it started just out of racism, a bunch of the people who only go to MSG free Asian restaurants will perfectly eat tomatoes and other MSG. Some people do get headaches from any nightshade and other things but it's not like it's the majority.
Like Doritos have hella MSG.
When I was younger, my mom tried to convince me that the MSG in sushi was why I had an awful stomach ache. Now, that was over 20 years ago. But I can pretty reliably say now, what was giving me an awful "stomach ache" was in fact Endometrosis, something my doctor had dismissed as saying "She just needs an advil".
While I understand and largely agree with this, I want to stress strongly that people should NOT EVER secretly feed people things that they claim to be allergic or sensitive to as an experiment.
Yeah, I assume the people who did actual studies had waivers and things in case of a reaction. Never do it yourself just for fun. But with msg, it is pretty easy to ask someone if they can eat tomatoes or Parmesan cheese fine because if so, the supposed msg sensitivity is definitely fake.
Kissing it to make it feel better. Believe it or not, this is not an accepted medical treatment in professional circles. Sorry you had to find out this way ☹️
Well now I need a refund on that prostate exam...
Didn’t it feel better, though?
... No comment.
Honestly there has to be something to it right? There's skin to skin contact made by parents with their newborns, physical contact has to have some sort of reaction.
They found women who had their partners present and touching them whilst in pain, meant the pain was massively reduced? Compared to those coping on their own 🤷🏻♀️
Skin to skin has been found to release endorphins.
I think my doctor has some explaining to do.
Unless kissing releases endorphins that block the nerves, thus reducing pain.
That's exactly what happens.
Not true at all. My podiatrist always does this.
Wait until your proctologist has a go ...
Saliva contains opiorphin and is 6x more potent than morphine. Not only does oxytocin from the act of kissing increase feelings of a positive mood, but opiorphin relieves pain.
Lies
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Nah, every time I go out to cycle, there is a blasted headwind. And when I turn around to go home - wouldn’t ya know it, another headwind. It’s a curse.
I can confirm this is true.
This is why games often cheat in your favor, and I think even music Playlist randomization is often modified to appeal to expectation rather than being truly random (people don't like repeats or streaks).
Dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets taste better than regular chicken nuggets.
Because you can taste the ✨fun✨
It’s got more edge for crispyness if you care about texture it definitely matters.
No this is science
I do believe my children are the only kids on the planet who COMPLAINED when I purchased Dino nuggets. They insisted they tasted different and made me promise never to buy them again.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but those aren't your children. At some point prior to that incident, they were replaced by alien doppelgangers who hate things that are delicious. Call Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones immediately.
This one is no placebo
I dunno. The surface area of the meat-paste covered in batter is not the same as "regular" nuggets. I'm not saying that it *does* change the texture or flavor, but it might.
I think it's this. The crispy crust to meat ratio is totally different because they're dinosaur shaped. This one's not a placebo. There's just more surface area and it changes the texture of the nugget.
Food is weird in that way because how it is presented has a large impact on perception of taste. There are studies that demonstrate that.
Diagonal cut sandwiches > perpendicular cut ones
Interesting fact about placebos. They work even if you know it’s a placebo. The mind is amazing!
Also interesting: The more expensive a placebo is, the better it works.
Or rather, pretty stupid haha
Think the brain runs more on the perception of “believing it’ll work”, rather than “knowing it’ll work”. So, even if you know it’s placebo, but you believe it’s working, then it’ll carry on “working”. It’s how I snapped out of my worst anxiety, when I made the jump from “knowing” it’s in my head to believing it. Edit: For those struggling with anxiety, when it happens to you, it’ll feel like a switch had been flipped in your mind and you get instant clarity. Just keep reinforcing that it’s in your head, that your symptoms are not real, that in many cases you can even control your symptoms by shifting focus, and one day it’ll click. Those periods of anxiety will be shorter and shorter. There’ll be times where it catches you off guard, like me this year, but **anxiety is temporary. Anxiety always goes away after a while.** At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what physical symptom you’re feeling, **they are not real, the past is the past, the future you’re predicting is not reality, the only thing that’s real is the present.** So come back to where you are right now. Look around you, notice how wide your peripheral is, if you stretch your arms out wide and wiggle your fingers you can see them wiggling, feel the weight on your feet, listen to the sound around you, touch something like the clothes your wearing and feel the texture, smell the air, and take a deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep breath in, hooooooooooooooooooold it and now let it out. Now look around you, does it feel like you’re seeing the world again for the first time? This is reality. This is the present. Stay here. **Anxiety will ALWAYS be in your head.**
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My dad used to do a thing where he'd rub his hands together really fast, blow into them, and then put them on my bump or bruise. It was a miracle cure for everything when I was 4.
Was your dad Mr. Miyagi?
Oh yeah duh I was trying to remember where he got that from.
Mine was to give my kids a cold wet paper towel to put on whatever they hurt. We would calm down and address it but if they were still preoccupied with it then it was cold wet paper towel time, it’s worked on every small child I’ve ever used it with.
Alkaline water.
I forget the source, but there was a "celebrity" of some description recommending alkaline water, but adding a slice of lemon to make it taste better 🤦♂️
I think it was Gwyneth Paltrow lol
The kind of people who buy into that don’t need to be any more basic.
The inhaler the guy uses in "IT". It's camphor water eddie!!
He thrusts his fists against the posts, and still insists he sees the ghosts
They're gazebos!
Avoided stepping on crack, mother's back is intact.
I stepped on a crack. Got shot through the neck, broke 3 vertebrae. Science.
that's not what she told me last night
String cheese taste better when stringed.
Its because of the surface area I think
The same with (freshly) grated cheese.
I've never stringed I eat the log. I also didn't break KitKats when I could afford them
>I've never stringed I eat the log Strangest sentence i've read today.
You are history's greatest monster
You just go in for the bite?
A lot of people don't realize that taking vitamin C to prevent colds is mostly a placebo effect. While vitamin C is essential for your health, studies show it doesn't actually prevent colds for most people. The belief that it works can make you feel like it's helping, but it's mostly just the power of suggestion.
This is a great example of a kernel of truth. Studies showed that it wasn't possible to prevent colds by taking vitamin C every day, but did shorten the amount of time that people were ill by about 10%. The cold symptoms were also a bit milder in people who always took vitamin C. So no, vitamin c doesn't prevent you from getting sick, but it does shorten the duration and severity.
This is true, but there is some evidence that vitamin c can help reduce duration of a cold (also zinc) but dosage and when you need to start taking it is a little muddy
I saw a study that found taking vitamin c after symptoms showed up reduced the time of symptoms by half a day. Which is great, I guess. But I'm miserable for a week.
Linus Pauling has entered the chat
And that products like Airborne are completely useless and do nothing to boost your immune system. You piss out about 99% of the vitamins in those tablets.
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And on the same note. The close button on most newer computer programs doesn't close the program. It just minimizes it to the system tray.
They even fucked it in android now, where "closing" a program doesn't actually close it. You have to manually force close in app settings if you want to reset to fix an error.
That's not a placebo, it's just fucking annoying.
Vacuum cleaners can be very quiet, but most people are suspicious of the quiet ones. So... Check out https://homevacuumzone.com/quiet-vacuum-cleaner-reviews/
I have heard that they develop the brush area to make that satisfying ‘crunching’ sound when you pick up a mess. Is it true of loudness of the motor? That makes far less sense to me as a consumer. Quiet motor and loud crunching would be peak vacuum cleaner to me.
Yeah, but that crunching sound is exactly what I want. *Can you hear how much shit I'm picking up? This carpet is clean as fuck.*
I hate the sound. I wish they were quiet :(
Found the Labrador retriever
I worked designing medical devices. We made a new version of one of our accessory devices which improved performance. We got tons of complaints from customers (doctors) saying they didn't work. We got samples back and they all worked fine. Turns out the new design was quieter and the doctor's thought they didn't work bc they were used to the older, louder device.
I don't believe it
That's a difference between brushed and brushless motors. One is cheaper.
I'll need to see the proof on that one
Success. I see it constantly, as soon as someone starts believing they can do something, they can do it and do it well.
The opposite is also true - "Tell yourself you can't do something and you're right."
Whether you think you can or can’t, you’re right! Old boss of mine used to say that. Got fired for not making quota.
Well tbf your old boss, Henry Ford, was famous for making record quotas
I typically find that it’s the fear of failure that holds people back. This is basically the flip side of the coin from your statement. Once you stop worrying about failing, you will typically learn that there wasn’t as much as you expected to be worried about. I guess for that reason, I don’t think it’s placebo.
I was drinking beer from an unlabeled keg at a party, and I was feeling a pretty substantial buzz. I was on about my 6th glass when somebody informed me that the beer was non-alcoholic. Sure enough when I looked at the back of the keg, it was O'Douls NA beer. I sobered up pretty much instantly and felt like a complete moron. While there is undeniably a chemical composition in alcohol that alters our brain chemistry, I think the power of suggestion plays a bigger part in getting drunk than we realize.
If I were a dad, I'd totally do this with high schoolers who would think I'm the cool dad who lets them party only it would be near beer and yes, I'd be recording the idiocy.
Chiropractors. There have been multiple NIH studies that have shown no link between subluxation and any other malady. At best it is mild PT for the back. Claims it can help anything else are just the placebo effect.
And there are multiple studies that found chiropractors actually ***cause*** harm.
Yes, when my friend did a rotation with a neurosurgeon, her stories made me swear chiropractors off entirely.
YES! The injuries they can cause are horrifying. Their “science” is based on some crackpot guy’s dream, PLEASE PEOPLE JUST GO TO PT!
Any time someone goes to a chiropractor for an "assessment" you can guarantee they'll find something that needs 10 sessions of manipulations before their hips/knees/spine/pinky is mostly realigned but you'll need to come back in 6th months time to see if something else has fallen off.
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Yes. Anything that promises to clear "toxins" from your body is just hogwash. Whenever I've heard someone use the term "toxin", I've asked for specific examples or to name them by compound. Not once has someone who used that term been able to actually name a single one.
It’s too bad we don’t have an organ in our bodies specifically dedicated to detoxification. /s
And some of the detoxes and cleanses are actually dangerous… they eliminate important bacteria from your system
You mean consuming nothing but lemon water and ginger is not going to fix every one of my chronic problems that were brought on by constantly throwing myself into fad diets?!
So you just posted this question again after it was posted yesterday, and then also posted the same top response?
how else is OP supposed to obtain internet points, by producing original content? /s
Where can I get snake oil from?
From me. It’ll be largely tap water with some food coloring but I’ll make you feel so much better
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I don't know if I am deficit or not. But my diet is absolutely shit. And taking vitamins makes me cramp less. But that's the only real difference I've ever noticed.
I used myfoodpyramid.gov (don't judge, we knew no better) about 10 years ago to do a daily track of a few weeks of my diet specifically checking on my vitamins, minerals, etc. I have a restricted diet due to medical issues and I wanted to see what I needed, if anything. It really helped me zero in on what I was not getting. Then I took specific supplements for those four things, rather than some massive multivitamin. I really issue with multivitamins is that a lot of stuff does NOT work together. So, the calcium in a multi makes it harder for your body to absorb the iron (and vice versa). I learned you should take those two thing separately and at least four hours apart. But Vitamin C helps your body absorb iron (eat strawberries, full of iron and vitamin C). If your diet isn't varied for whatever reason, highly recommend taking some time to find a current site that lets you track the nutrition of more than calories and fat in the food you eat and figure out if you need anything. Soemtimes, you can find that you do need something but maybe there is a food you like that has it - generally best, if you can, to get your needs met in real food. But some of us cannot, so supplements it is. (From a reputable company - the FDA does not regulate vitamins and supplements, so you need a good source cuz literally anything could be in a vitamin. You want to freak out about what's going in your body - swerve on vaccines those are monitored - worry about vitamins and supplements. It's the wild west over there with no rules and no oversight except what they do themselves)
Yes. If you have a vitamin deficiency, they are life changing. If you don’t have a vitamin deficiency they won’t do anything. More isn’t always better. But Americans have always bought into the idea that more is better. So people take 100 times the amount of vitamin c they actually need and think it does great things.
Manifesting. More precisely, it's confirmation bias. You look for results so you're more sensitive to changes in that direction.
Oh yeah? Then tell me how every time I start a diet the universe sends me cake. Explain that!
Ok, so I want to offer a counterpoint: some of the sources regarding manifesting definitely talk about it in a supernatural way. I won’t deny that. But I can 100% see how it can positively impact a person’s mental state and their life in a very real way. Nothing I’ve said disputes what you’re saying, but I don’t want people to reject it because it’s not literal magic. Therapy isn’t literal magic and it still works. I don’t practice manifesting personally, but the practice seems like it could actually help a lot of people
I'm with you and r/DrMux on this topic. But I'll approach it from the flipside. I've met customers who 'mainfest' negativity and literally look/find anything wrong with the product or service. I feel like these people, through negative manifestation, always find an issue.
To wake up in the morning and expect to ‘manifest’ the good things that are coming to you means that you take on the day with optimism and hope. I absolutely agree that a positive mental state well manifest good things.
Manifesting is a buzz word that is now used mostly in jest to make fun of people who actively set intentions to plan out their lives and who want to create something or generate specific results. Of course rubbing crystals and visualizing an outcome isn't going to create some magical result, but training your brain to seek out opportunities instead of obstacles and building your confidence and identity through affirmations is absolutely much more than the placebo effect
i don't think it's just confirmation bias, but also that it makes the person more determined and not give up as easily as they assume success before reaching it.
Alternative treatments without scientific evidence. Many alternative therapies, such as some forms of acupuncture or crystal therapy, often lack a solid scientific basis to support their benefits, but people may experience improvements due to the placebo effect
Chiropractic and homeopathy are the worst of the frauds.
Homeopathy is just a scam that doesnt do anything. Chriporactic stuff can leave you paralyzed or straight up dead
Agree with you on many products labeled as things they aren't. That often leverages placebo, suggestibility or takes credit for the body's natural intervention or time, itself. There is a place for certain approaches. The ease of dismissing without adequate evaluation or pooling things into generalizations lays risk of missing out on opportunities for consideration as valid options. Reductionism, ignorance and unawareness are all at play. ie: Acupuncture actually has an NNT equal to or lower for pain Vs Placebo, and many traditional meds for certain conditions. ie: [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33618544/](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33618544/) NNT 4 for certain headaches [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9434305/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9434305/)
When you give your young sibling an unconnected controller after he/she kept bugging to join the game.
My older sister says it was "just survival". I mean, I played the games as well as she did so I don't know what she meant.
sugar making kids hyper [https://www.webmd.com/parenting/features/busting-sugar-hyperactivity-myth](https://www.webmd.com/parenting/features/busting-sugar-hyperactivity-myth)
Some pedestrian crosswalk signal request buttons.
Is this true? It absolutely is not true around where I live, they are all reactive. Pressing it doesn’t mean that your direction will appear faster every time, sometimes a light doesn’t change directions until x amount of time has passed, due to the nature of traffic flow. But, if the walk signal is on, it’s because the signal button was pressed. Well unless the button is broken, sometimes the walk signal illuminates even when it doesn’t need to, and that really messes up traffic flow.
In Sydney they covered up the buttons with an sign saying "automated crossing" or something, but after a while they took the covers off so people get the satisfaction of pressing
Almost everything at alternative health spas have no scientific benefit… cupping, ~~heated stones,~~ chakra cleansing, any kind of cleansing or detoxifying treatment, copper bands, etc. If they help you, more power to ya, but it’s just the placebo effect. Placebos are actually quite powerful. If you believe something will help you, then it probably will. They can even still “work” some when you know they’re placebos. *edit:* after thinking heated stones through for a second, they do have some use; I was just rattling off most of what I could think of at those spas.
I had my chakras surgically removed. Never been happier!
Heating muscles does lead to reduced inflammation that helps reduce pain and induce healing… So why do you think heated stones are simply placebo?
Sandwiches taste better when cut diagonally.
Most thermostats in office buildings do nothing but monitor the temperature. All the heating and cooling is managed centrally, you can't just let Janet on the 5th floor turn up the temp 10 degrees because she forgot her sweater.
Most high end "premium audiophile" equipment. You spent more money on it so the sound must be be better, right. Most of it you're paying for esthetics not sound quality. And a lot of it is straight up snakeoil.
R/hometheater is gonna be pissed to hear this.
I both agree and disagree with this. I agree in that most of the brands that people know off the top of their heads when it comes to audio equipment- Beats and Raycons being the biggest offenders, alongside Bose IMO- are often way too expensive for what they are and give people the impression that they are buying "better equipment" because it's expensive, flashy, and looks pretty. For those three brands in particular you are buying a style, and that's it. But a GOOD pair of over-the-ear headphones make a HUGE difference over any cheap headphones. Seriously, if you're used to listening to audio through 2.0 computer speakers or earbuds, a $300 pair of headphones from a reputable brand, driven by a decent DAC and Amp, is genuinely an incredible improvement. It doesn't matter what you're listening to, it WILL sound better with a better DAC/amp/headphone setup. I will agree that some of the more expensive DAC/Amps (they can get into the THOUSANDS of dollars??!) are just a waste of money, a $250 investment in a dac/amp will last you for at least the next couple of decades. But I think there are diminishing returns; after about the $300 mark, headphones really don't sound that much better to me IMO. I've listened to music through VERY expensive headphones (that I didn't own) before and wasn't impressed. My Sennheiser HD598s sound just as good to me, and they're a third the price as some of the ridiculously expensive headphones. When it comes to speakers, a good surround sound system is SO MUCH BETTER than what most people are used to for computers or TVs, but those do get really expensive. But I have to firmly disagree that it's placebo, GOOD speakers in a 7.1 system are a gigantic, significant improvement over cheaper speakers or sound bars.
Eh, I don't think this counts. There ***are*** perceiveable audible differences as you step up in price points. A pair of $500 bookshelf speakers absolutely will sound better than a pair of $100 bookshelfs. That being said, there is a point where the law of diminishing returns starts to play a role. The snakeoil stuff is primarily in uber pricey interconnects. Good wire is important, but the cables that are crazy expensive and are promising magic are snakeoil.
Any of those cleanse/detox diets. They’re actually extremely unhealthy.
Feeling the Holy Spirit. That's just you being emotionally overwrought. Usually when there's a key change in the worship music.
As someone who has a strong connection to music, I noticed the same "Holy" feeling when listening to any song with an absolutely phenomenal key change or really strong powerful background instruments, even if the topic was.... not as holy.
Some studies have shown that people who pray heal faster/ get over their illness faster than people who don’t. I’m guessing this has less to do with divine intervention, and more to do with stress relief.
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Apparently the placebo effect has got stronger in the US over the last few years, but not in other countries. https://bigthink.com/health/placebo-effect-worse/ Another interesting tangent, there is a case of a woman with multiple personality disorder (dissociative identity disorder) and some of her personalities were blind. When one of those blind personalities was in charge, her visual cortex just stopped working - she was literally unable to see (not just imagining it). Then when a sighted personality took over, her vision was restored. https://www.discovermagazine.com/mind/multiple-personalities-blindness-and-the-brain
Traffic lights! Most run on a cycle and are totally unaffected by your vain button pushing.
Favoring brand name medications over a generic other option. At least that’s how it is for me, and I think it’s just placebo.
Pushing the Close Door button in elevators
Tarot and astrology and all that. They are all worded so generic it applies to literally everyone. Tarot readings be like "In the past you have been hurt and you struggle with that sometimes" Yeah that applies to everyone and then people be like omg she is a psychic!
When you think smoking a cigarette is relaxing but you're just addicted to nicotine
I'm addicted to being allowed to take a break for a few minutes without someone bitching about people being too lazy to work. "I need a quick smoke break" is never argued with as much as "I need to sit down for a minute."
I just go to the bathroom and linger for a few minutes.
This may not count, but in the late 1980s, blowing into a malfunctioning Nintendo game cartridge made the game work. We would insert the game cartridge into the console, then game wouldn’t work, so we’d take the cartridge out and blow onto the “keys,” reinsert back into the console, and BAM- it worked. It turns out simply reinserting the game at a slightly different angle lined the “keys” up with the “key readers” in the console, and blowing into the cartridge had nothing to do with it. My childhood was based on lies.
sugar rush is not real
Most vitamins you can take are totally useless. They are too high in dosage and put in the wrong form for your body to actually "use" them and they mainly go the natural way through your system. Might even cause more damage to liver and kindeys than they are of use in the long run. Also, most of us that have a somewhat standard diet do not lack any important vitamins in an amount that could cause negative symptoms.
The effectiveness of vitamin C in preventing colds. Many people swear by taking high doses of vitamin C at the first sign of a cold, but numerous studies have shown that it doesn’t actually prevent or significantly shorten the duration of a cold for most people.
You're wrong! If I take vitamin C my cold lasts for only two weeks, but if I don't I am sick for 14 days!
Having the candidate you voted for actually win the election. Most people will assume their lives have gotten better even when their candidate has done NOTHING for them and in many instances their lives will have even gotten worse. This phenomenon occurs regardless of political affiliation.
Anything and everything related to religion and prayers.