Psychotropic placebos create resistance to the misinformation effect.
Can a placebo for a psychotropic drug help participants resist the misinformation effect? To answer this question, we gave participants a mixture of baking soda and water and told half of them that the mixture was a cognition-enhancing drug called R273 and told the other half that it was an inactive version of the drug. Shortly thereafter, all participants took part in a three-stage misinformation experiment. Compared with participants who were told that they had taken the placebo, the participants who were told that they had taken the drug reported improved cognitive abilities and were less susceptible to the misinformation effect. We provide source-monitoring and mindfulness accounts of our findings.
Clifasefi
Seema L
SL
Addictive Behaviors Research Center, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA. seemac@u.washington.edu
Garry
Maryanne
M
Harper
David N
DN
Sharman
Stefanie J
SJ
Sutherland
Rachel
R
D001076:Aptitude / Q000187:drug effects*; D001288:Attention / Q000187:drug effects*; D000697:Central Nervous System Stimulants / Q000494:pharmacology*; D003071:Cognition / Q000187:drug effects*; D018849:Controlled Clinical Trials as Topic; D003469:Culture; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000187:drug effects*; D015990:Placebo Effect
D000697:Central Nervous System Stimulants