The Study
Effects of an open-label placebo intervention on reactions to social exclusion in healthy adults: a randomized controlled trial
This study showed that when people were left out in a game, those who took a pill they were told was a placebo (but wasn't medicine) felt less hurt than those who didn't get a pill. But it only measured how they felt, not what they did, and only in a small group of college students.
Analysis score
Maximum 90 for a randomized controlled trial.
Where the score came from
People were told they got a sugar pill that can help with feeling hurt — even though they knew it had no medicine. Those who felt left out in a game reported feeling less emotional pain after taking it.
Where does this study sit?
Reviews of RCTs (Meta-analyses)
Max 100Randomized Trials
Max 90Reviews of Cohort Studies
Max 85Cohort Studies
Max 72Reviews of Case-Control Studies
Max 63Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional & Case Series
Max 50Expert Opinion
Max 565 / 100
Quality score
Participants are randomly assigned to treatment or control groups, minimizing bias. The gold standard for testing whether an intervention causes an effect.
Key takeaways
Summary
Based on the study abstract and findings.
- 1Yes — feeling less hurt after being excluded is meaningful because social pain can lead to anger, depression, or isolation, and this is a simple, non-drug way to ease it.
- 2People who were left out and took the fake pill felt 0.77 standard deviations less hurt than those who didn't take it.
- 3Their sense of belonging, control, or self-worth didn't improve.
Score breakdown, methodology, conflicts of interest, evidence analysis & raw study data
Publication
Journal
Scientific Reports
Year
2023
Authors
Leonie Stumpp, Melissa Jauch, Dilan Sezer, Jens Gaab, Rainer Greifeneder
Related Content
Claims (6)
Patients who know they are receiving a placebo still experience measurable improvements in their symptoms.
In healthy adults who feel socially excluded during a computer game, taking a placebo pill with a clear explanation reduces feelings of emotional pain but does not change their sense of belonging, control, self-worth, or purpose.
In healthy adults, giving a placebo with full knowledge that it is a placebo does not change how threatened people feel about their core psychological needs after being socially excluded, but it does reduce how much they say they feel hurt.
Open-label placebos reduce how much people say they feel social pain, but they do not change measurable physical signs of distress.
Open-label placebos reduce social pain only when the explanation given addresses psychological need threat; explanations focused solely on hurt feelings do not reduce broader distress.
When people feel socially excluded, taking a placebo they know is inert reduces their emotional pain from exclusion. This effect does not occur in people who were not excluded, showing the placebo specifically targets threat-related responses, not general emotions.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.