The Placebo Effect and the Art of Conscious Action

Do you ever feel guilty about watching too much television? Even when you’re tired, and really can’t be bothered to do anything else? Well, stop it. No, don’t stop watching TV - I mean stop feeling guilty about it.

Watching television can be one of the most effective stress-reducers around – that’s why we do it. I’m convinced that, if the most stressed and uptight television-viewer were deposited in front of their favourite TV show and hooked up to heart-rate and brain-wave monitors, those devices would show the immediate signs of the subject calming down and relaxing (provided their favourite show didn’t happen to be some kind of ultra-violent gore-fest).

So why do we sometimes feel so bad when we’ve “frittered away” a valuable hour or so in front of the box? I think it happens because we don’t always do it consciously. Mindlessly turning on the television and slumping into a stupor in front of it for an hour or two is one thing; consciously choosing to give yourself a couple of hours of uninterrupted viewing time (perhaps wrapped in a cosy dressing gown, nibbling on your favourite snacks) is quite another. Just visualise those two scenarios for a moment. Can you feel the difference? One can lead to guilt, shame, and inertia; the other, to enjoyment, relaxation, and rejuvenation. The difference is down to whether the action taken is taken consciously, or mindlessly.

Could it be that taking conscious action can improve the results of that action? I believe it can.

I’ve been reading the book 59 Seconds: Think A Little, Change A Lot by Professor Richard Wiseman, and one particular segment leapt out at me as being particularly noteworthy in relation to this subject.

In the lead-up to the following extract, he illustrates the placebo effect by describing an experiment he conducted where participants behaved as though they were drunk because they believed they had been consuming alcohol, although they had actually only been drinking a non-alcoholic substitute (useful information if you want your next round to be a cheap one).

From pages 199-201 (the parentheses are mine):

“Exercise is an effective way of reducing blood pressure, but how much of this relationship is all in the mind? In a groundbreaking and innovative study, Alia Crum and Ellen Langer from Harvard University enlisted the help of more than eighty hotel-room attendants selected from seven hotels. The attendants were a physically active lot (cleaning, stair-climbing, lifting etc). However, Crum and Langer speculated that even though the attendants were leading an active life, they might not realise that this was the case, and wondered what would happen if they were told how physically beneficial their job was for them….
The research team randomly allocated the attendants in each hotel to one of two conditions. Those in one condition were informed about the upside of exercise, and told about the number of calories they burnt during a day…To help the information stick in their minds, everyone in the group was given a handout containing the important facts and figures…The control group of attendants were also given the general information about the benefits of exercise, but not told about the calories they burnt during a day. Everyone (in both groups) then completed a questionnaire about how much they tended to exercise outside work, and their diet, drinking and smoking habits, and underwent a series of health tests.
A month later, the researchers returned. The hotel managers confirmed that the workloads of the attendants in (both groups) had remained constant. The experimenters then asked everyone to complete the same questionnaires and health tests as before, and set about analysing the data. The two groups had not taken additional exercise outside work, nor had they changed their eating, smoking or drinking habits.
The researchers turned their attention to the health tests. Remarkably, those who had been told about how many calories they burnt on a daily basis had lost a significant amount of weight, lowered their body mass index and waist-to-hip ratio, and experienced a decrease in blood pressure. The control attendants showed no similar improvements.
So what caused the health boost? Crum and Langer believe that it is all connected to the power of the placebo. By reminding the attendants of the amount of exercise they took on a daily basis, they altered their beliefs about themselves, and their bodies responded to make these beliefs a reality. It seems that in the same way that people slur their words when they think they are drunk…so merely thinking about your normal daily exercise can make you healthier.
Whatever the explanation for this mysterious effect, when it comes to improving your health, you may already be putting in the necessary effort. It is just a case of realising it.”

Of course, it’s just one study – but I love how it accords with what many of us feel intuitively: that it’s possible to get more benefit from a workout when we go into it consciously and appreciatively, rather than just trying to “get it over with”. Note that this isn’t a “think yourself thin” gimmick. You do actually have to be doing the exercise to reap the additional rewards. However, consciously focusing the mind on the reasons for doing the exercise (or relaxing in front of the television set), as well as the potential benefits to be derived from the activity, are important in ways that are far greater than we may at first realise.

If it applies to exercise and relaxation, it can apply to other areas of life too. So – what are you already doing that you can start doing consciously?

Give it a go, give it some thought – and enjoy the added benefits.