Lying to Win—Placebos and Sport Science

Abstract

introduce an intrigu-ing Thomas Jefferson quote from 1807 addressing “pious fraud”: “One of the most successful physicians I have ever known has assured me that he used more bread pills, drops of colored water, and powders of hickory ashes, than of all other medicines put together” (quote from reference 6).When it comes to winning at the highest levels of sport, it may be the case that many “sport scientists” have either stretched the truth or simply blatantly lied to an elite athlete in hopes of improving sporting performance. If research is correct and belief effects are indeed pow-erful, should lying to an athlete in hopes of improving performance be considered an acceptable practice? What should we think of sport science “gurus” who confidently administer dubious ergogenic aids they barely understand if the outcome is a victorious athlete? As suggested by Thomas Jefferson, history reveals that physicians have been prescribing placebos for more than 200 years in an attempt to make patients feel better.For the uninitiated, it is easy to overlook how power -ful a belief effect can be and thus the importance of this topic. But consider for a moment the insightful paper published in 1954 by Professor Walter B. Cannon from the Harvard Medical School titled “Voodoo Death.”