When you feel unwell, could Googling your symptoms make you feel sicker? According to a new study, it might.

You have probably heard of the placebo effect: a patient or test subject is given a pill with no medicinal effect, but they end up feeling better because they believed, or were told, that it was a real treatment.

Well, it turns out the placebo effect has an evil twin. Researchers call it the nocebo effect.

“Nocebo is kind of the opposite” of placebo, Dr. Baiju Shah, a senior scientist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, told The Current‘s Anna Maria Tremonti.

Source: CBC News

Date: May 3rd, 2018

Link: http://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-may-2-2018-1.4644450/the-nocebo-effect-is-googling-your-symptoms-making-them-worse-1.4644451

Discussion

1) Are there ways a company could usefully use this “nocebo” effect to influence or change the behaviour of customers?

2) In what other ways can Googling impact how you feel?