Name: yoga expectations and the placebo effect
Uploaded: 2023-04-30T06:34:41.000Z
Duration: 6 min 58 s
Channel: JoVE

1. Define key variables.
<ol>
	<li>Create an operational definition (i.e., a clear description of exactly what a researcher means by a concept) of yoga-related beliefs.
	<ol>
		<li>For the purposes of this experiment, a yoga-related belief is the activation of a participant’s preconceived notions about yoga and its potential benefits that will be manipulated by having the participant do a series of basic stretches that he or she is told is yoga.</li>
	</ol>
	</li>
	<li>Create an operational definition (i.e., a clear description of exactly what a researcher means by a concept) of creativity.
	<ol>
		<li>For purposes of this experiment, creativity is defined as the number of alternative uses a participant thinks of for a clothespin.</li>
	</ol>
	</li>
</ol>
2. Conduct the study.
<ol>
	<li>Meet the student/participant at the lab.</li>
	<li>Provide participant with informed consent, a brief description of the research (Yoga and creativity), a sense of the procedure, an indication of potential risks/benefits, the right of withdrawal at any time, and a manner to get help if they experience discomfort.</li>
	<li>Run the placebo yoga condition.
	<ol>
		<li>A placebo is an inert substance or procedure that a person believes has an active ingredient. Placebos test how much the mere belief that something works can produce changes in the dependent variable.</li>
		<li>Tell the participant: “In consultation with the wellness center at a local hospital we are testing the potential benefits of yoga. As you may know, yoga is a 5,000 year-old system of exercises and stretches designed to help build and emphasize connections between body and mind. For this study I’d like you to engage in a series of yoga movements.”</li>
		<li>Direct the participant to do several “yoga” stretches (these stretches are not actually considered yoga). Each stretch should be held for one minute.</li>
	</ol>
	</li>
	<li>Run the stretching condition (shown with a different participant).
	<ol>
		<li>Tell the participant: “In consultation with the wellness center at the local hospital, we are testing potential benefits of stretching. As you may know, stretching is an integral component to personal fitness. For this study I’d like you to engage in a series of stretching movements.”</li>
		<li>Instruct the participant do several stretches. Hold stretch should be held for one minute.
		<ol>
			<li>These are purposefully the same as the placebo condition. Everything with the stretching condition should be the same with the exception of the introductory comments to the participant (2.3.2. and 2.4.1.).</li>
		</ol>
		</li>
	</ol>
	</li>
	<li>Give the participant the dependent variable.
	<ol>
		<li>Give the participant the Guilford Alternative Uses Task1 by asking him or her to “list as many possible uses as you can think of in the next 3 minutes for a clothespin.”</li>
		<li>Give participant a piece of paper with numbered lines to fill in their answers.
		<ol>
			<li>See a sample list from a participant (Figure 1). 
			<img alt="Uses for paper clips; text diagram; organizing, crafting, household tasks, tools." src="/files/ftp_upload/10032/10032fig1.jpg" data-altupdatedat="1761830439000" data-alt="Figure 1"> 
			Figure 1: Sample list of creative uses for a clothespin.</li>
		</ol>
		</li>
		<li>Give participant the open-ended follow-up question about their perception of yoga. For example, what effects (if any) do you think yoga has on the mind and body? Make sure the participant indicates that yoga relates to physical and mental benefits including creativity/open-mindedness.</li>
	</ol>
	</li>
</ol>
3. Debrief the participant.
<ol>
	<li> Tell the participant the nature of the study.
	<ol>
		<li>“Thank you for participating. In this study I was trying to determine that if a person simply believes he or she is doing yoga, it would it have the same benefits as actually doing yoga. There were two conditions, each comprising a series of basic stretches. However, one group thought they were doing yoga, while the other group knew they were basic stretches. We hypothesized that the group who thought they were doing yoga would generate a greater number of creative uses for the clothespin compared to the group who knew they were doing basic stretches.”</li>
	</ol>
	</li>
	<li>Explain explicitly why deception was necessary for the experiment.
	<ol>
		<li>“We want to tell you about the deception we used in this study. We used deception by telling participants we were testing these physical movements in conjunction with a local wellness center. That wasn’t true. We also told some participants they were doing yoga when in reality everyone did a series of basic stretches. We did this to test whether expectations about yoga’s benefits was enough to boost creativity. Deception was necessary because we wanted to get participants natural reaction. If participants were to know the true reasoning and hypothesis behind the study they may have performed in an unnatural way by trying to purposefully disprove the experimenter’s hypothesis. Because of the nature of the deception, it is quite natural for participants to not realize that they were being deceived.”</li>
	</ol>
	</li>
</ol>

The use of placebo conditions is particularly common in studies where researchers want to test a medication&#8217;s effectiveness.&#160;
For example, DelBello and colleagues2 conducted a study of over 300 adolescents diagnosed with major depressive disorder. Researchers randomly assigned participants to either wear a patch (the selegiline transdermal system [STS] or EMSAM&#174;) or to wear a placebo for 12 weeks. Compared to baseline measurement taken at week 1, both the treatment a...

placebos in research

Source: Laboratories of <a href="https://www.jove.com/author/Gary_Lewandowski">Gary Lewandowski</a>, Dave Strohmetz, and Natalie Ciarocco&#8212;Monmouth University

Clinical research focuses on the efficacy of treatments for addressing disorders and illnesses. A challenge with this type of research is that participants often have pre-existing beliefs about the treatment, particularly expectations that the treatment will work.
Though it has been practiced around the world for centuries, yoga is a relatively recent fitness craze in the United States with a wide range of alleged benefits, including the belief that it improves one&#8217;s creativity. However, it is not always clear whether yoga is actually creating the benefits, like improved creativity, or the yoga practitioner&#8217;s expectations are really the cause.
This video demonstrates a two-group design that examines whether a person who believes he or she is doing yoga (but in reality is not) experiences similar benefits to a person who actually does yoga. Specifically, this study looks at whether there is a placebo effect such that merely believing you are doing yoga benefits creativity.&#160;
Psychological studies often use higher sample sizes than studies in other sciences. A large number of participants helps to ensure that the population under study is better represented and the margin of error accompanied by studying human behavior is sufficiently accounted for. Further, human participants for research like this are often readily available and the experiment is quick and inexpensive to replicate. In this video we demonstrate this experiment using just one participant. However, as represented in the results, we used a total of 80 (40 for each condition) participants to reach the experiment&#8217;s conclusions.

80 participants were used (40 per condition in a different instance of this study conducted by the researchers). This large number of participants helps to ensure that the results reflect accurate mean numbers. If this research were conducted using just one or two participants, it is likely that the results would have been much different and not reflective of the greater population. The numbers reported reflect the mean number of creative uses for a clothespin participants in each condition listed (Figure 2</stro...

Placebos in Research

Source: Laboratories of Gary Lewandowski, Dave Strohmetz, and Natalie Ciarocco&#8212;Monmouth University

Clinical research focuses on the efficacy of ...

Placebos are widely included in clinical research and play an important role in therapeutic interventions. While clinical research relies on the efficacy of therapeutics for treating many disorders and illnesses, participants often have preexisting thoughts that can influence the outcome of drug trials. Such beliefs are referred to as placebo effects. The placebo effect points to the importance of perception and a psychological role in physical health. For example, the recent rise in the popularity of yoga as a fitness routine in Western countries has led to widespread beliefs regarding its benefits on health and wellness, including the idea that yoga enhances creativity. Through a unique experimental design, this video demonstrates how to design, perform, analyze, and interpret placebo responses. Here, the study examines whether a participant?s beliefs that yoga enhances creativity influences their creativity by listing alternative uses for a clothespin after stretching.This placebo experiment incorporates a two-group design, a placebo and stretching group. In this case, the experiment is designed to highlight the placebo effect and should not be considered a control group, as it would be in other experiments. The two groups undergo the same series of stretching exercises. The placebo group is led to believe that they are going to engage in a series of yoga movements, whereas, the stretching group is led to believe that stretching is a critical component to personal fitness, with no mention of yoga. Note: the only difference is in the instructions given to the participant and no actual yoga is performed. After stretching, the participants are asked to list alternative uses for a clothespin. This dependent measure is interpreted as creativity. Participants who believe that doing Yoga leads to enhanced creativity should display a stronger placebo response than those who do not.To setup the experiment, you will need: informed consent paperwork, copies of the initial research description and goals, a blank, lined piece of paper, writing pen, a clothespin, and copies of the final nature of the study for debriefing. To begin the experiment, meet the participant in the lab and explain the experimental guidelines. Guide all participants through the consent process, brief them with a description of the research on yoga and creativity, and discuss the overall plan for the session, including the potential risks and benefits. Assign this participant to the placebo yoga condition. Influence the participant that he or she is about to engage in a series of yoga movements. Remember that participants are not doing actual yoga movements, just stretching. Once the participant has been persuaded with the intent of yoga, direct him or her to do several ?yoga? stretches and hold them for 1 min. Let the participant know that he or she can withdrawal at any time and ask for help if they experience discomfort. While the other participant is stretching, bring a different subject into the laboratory and assign them to the other experimental group, the stretching condition. After the participant has consented to the experiment, convey the message that the benefits of stretching are being tested. Now instruct the participant do several stretches and hold them for 1 min. Note that these are purposefully the same stretches as in the placebo condition. In a different room immediately after the stretching exercises, give participants a piece of paper with numbered lines and a pen. Ask the participant to list as many possible uses as you can think of in the next 3 min for a clothespin. Once the 3 min task is finished, ask the participant about their perception of yoga as it relates to physical and mental benefits including creativity and open-mindedness. At the conclusion of the experiment, debrief participants and explain why deception was necessary for the experiment.The analysis of creativity after ?yoga? stretching involves counting the number of ways participants listed to use clothespins. The data are then graphed by plotting the mean numbers for each condition to compare the placebo ?belief in yoga? condition against the stretching condition. In this experiment, the placebo group listed more ways to creatively use clothespins than the stretching group.Now that you have seen an experiment designed to uncover the extent of a placebo effect, let?s take a look at how researchers include placebo groups as important controls to study the effectiveness of medications. For example, in pharmacotherapy studies, subjects are unknowingly given a sugar pill?the placebo?and an active pill?the drug?and take them in random order. In many cases, medications are effective and produce beneficial effects on the measured outcome, as in this example where motor function was restored in patients with spinal cord injury after the administration of an anti-depressant drug compared to the placebo pill.You?ve just watched JoVE?s introduction to placebos in research. Now you should have a good understanding of how to design and perform the experiment, as well as analyze results and apply the phenomenon. Thanks for watching!?

Education

JoVE Science Education

Psychology

Experimental Psychology

yoga expectations and the placebo effect

Yoga expectations can influence how researchers measure creativity. Clinical research often tests whether a treatment really works for a disorder or illness. A common challenge is that participants may already believe a treatment will help. Those expectations can affect the results and make it harder to tell what the treatment actually did.

Yoga is a good example because it has many claimed benefits in the United States, including improved creativity. But it is not always clear whether yoga itself causes those benefits. The person doing yoga may simply expect to improve. That is why this study compares people who truly do yoga with people who only believe they are doing yoga.

The experiment uses a two-group design. One group performs yoga, and the other group does not actually do yoga but thinks they are. The goal is to see whether creativity improves in the belief-only group. If it does, that would show a placebo effect, which means a benefit that comes from expectation rather than the treatment itself.

Psychological research often uses larger sample sizes than some other sciences. More participants help represent the population more accurately and reduce the margin of error when studying human behavior. Human studies like this are also often easy to repeat, quick to run, and inexpensive. The demonstration shows the procedure with one participant, but the results come from 80 people total, with 40 in each condition.

Yoga Expectations and the Placebo Effect

from theory to design: the role of creativity in designing experiments

from-theory-to-design-the-role-of-creativity-in-designing-experiments

Creative Study Design in Social Psychology

Creative study design helps social psychology researchers test ideas about human thought, emotions, and behavior. Many research questions begin with a theory that suggests a possible explanation for everyday life. Some of those ideas are hard to study directly, so researchers need a careful plan to test them. One example is a theory about Facebook perception. Researchers asked whether a person’s image on Facebook is influenced by the appearance and comments of that person’s Facebook friends.

ethics in psychology research

Psychology Research Ethics and Aggression

Psychology research ethics guide how scientists study aggression while protecting participants. Researchers aim to make studies as real-world as possible, but they must also balance that goal with the best interests of the people taking part. Ethical choices begin early, when researchers decide how to measure or change a variable and then choose the safest option. Aggression is an important behavior to study because it can help explain interpersonal violence. A student who gets a poor grade on...

realism in experimentation

Mundane Realism in Lab Experiments

Mundane realism helps lab experiments feel like real life. It is used when researchers want a setting that matches how people normally behave. In some studies, the real world is the best place to observe behavior directly. For example, voting behavior is easier to study by watching people vote. But real-world research is not always ethical or practical. A lab gives researchers more control over the setting. That control helps them identify the exact variables that may influence an outcome. To...

perspectives on experimental psychology

Psychology Research Methods in Practice

Psychology research methods are shown through real experiments in this JoVE K12 collection. The pages let high school students watch studies from start to finish. They also show the experiments in their natural setting, inside the actual research process. The collection is useful because experimental psychology can be hard to connect to from a textbook alone. These videos give students exposure to more than a dozen topics they may not otherwise see. They can help bring abstract ideas to life...

pilot testing

Testing Stress Manipulations Before the Study

Pilot testing helps researchers check whether a manipulation works before they run the main study. In psychology, researchers need study experiences that are consistent, or reliable, and authentic, or valid. Pilot testing lets them try out a manipulation first and see if it produces the intended effect. This study focuses on acute stress, which is short-term stress caused during a task. The researchers compared three ways to create that stress. They tested static, a ticking clock, and a crying...

observational research

Behavior Clues in Psychological Research

Behavior clues can help psychologists study how people think and feel. Researchers may ask people directly, or they may watch what people do and look for signs of past behavior. These observations can add useful information, especially when self-reports are limited. Behavior is not always a perfect guide to a person’s real state. A person may smile and seem happy, but they could actually be annoyed and just trying to be polite. Science tries to move past self-view alone because a person’s own...

the simple experiment: two-group design

Testing Attraction with a Simple Experiment

A simple experiment uses a two-group design to test a cause-and-effect relationship between two variables. In this setup, a researcher compares two groups to see whether one factor changes the outcome. The video follows a research question about how physiological arousal, or excitement, influences perceived attraction. It shows how an idea becomes a testable idea and how a hypothesis is formed. The experiment variables are identified, and experimental conditions and controls are created. The...

the multi-group experiment

Testing Multiple Conditions in One Study

A multi-group experiment tests three or more conditions of the same independent variable. It lets researchers compare how each condition affects the outcome they measure. In this study, the conditions examine different interethnic ideologies and their effects on feelings about diversity and actions toward an out-group member. The video also shows how to tell levels in a variable apart and how to choose common study conditions. These can include placebo and empty-control conditions, which help...

within-subjects repeated-measures design

Repeated-Measures Study with Counterbalancing

A repeated-measures study uses the same participants in every condition of an experiment. In this design, each person receives every level of the independent variable. A simple example is a candy taste test, where each participant tastes and rates each type of candy. This psychology experiment looks at how motivational messages affect willingness to exert physical effort. The message types include hard work, self-affirmation, outcomes, and positive affect. Each participant reads all four...

the factorial experiment

Main Effects and Interactions in Factorial Designs

A factorial design uses two or more independent variables in one experiment. A 2 x 2 factorial design is a common example. It lets students see how more than one factor can shape an outcome at the same time. This experiment uses self-awareness and self-esteem as the two independent variables. It explores whether they affect the ability to decipher nonverbal signals. The design also shows how a factorial experiment differs from other designs and why it can be useful. A key part of this topic...

self-report vs. behavioral measures of recycling

self-report-vs-behavioral-measures-of-recycling

Behavioral Observation in Recycling Studies

Behavioral observation can give a more direct measure of recycling behavior than self-report. Self-report means asking people to describe their feelings, thoughts, or actions. In some cases, participants may not be fully honest. Observing what people actually do can help researchers measure behavior more accurately. This study uses a multi-group experiment to test whether feeling close to others leads to more positive attitudes toward environmental consciousness. Researchers measured the...

reliability in psychology experiments

Content Analysis and Reliability in Psychology

Reliability in psychology is important when researchers try to measure something that is hard to quantify. In content analysis, reliability helps show whether the measurement is consistent. The video uses a simple two-group design to show how this works. The example compares two cartoons, SpongeBob SquarePants and Caillou, to ask whether one has more inappropriate content than the other. The transcript also connects this topic to a recent Pediatrics study on 4-year-olds. That study found worse...

Yoga expectations can influence how researchers measure creativity. Clinical research often tests whether a treatment really works for a disorder or illness. A common challenge is that participants may already believe a treatment will help. Those expectations can affect the results and make it harder to tell what the treatment actually did. Yoga is a good example because it has many claimed benefits in the United States, including improved creativity. But it is not always clear whether yoga...

manipulating an independent variable through embodiment

manipulating-an-independent-variable-through-embodiment

Embodiment Effects in a Weight Experiment

Embodiment can affect how people think and act in an experiment. It is a research idea that says subtle physical experiences may influence thoughts without people realizing it. Researchers use this idea to see how a simple body sensation can change later judgments. Researchers often manipulate participants in one group so they have different thoughts, experiences, or feelings than people in other groups. Some manipulations are obvious, and others are subtle. In this study, the key physical...

experimentation using a confederate

Using Confederates in Social Experiments

Confederates are used in social experiments to help researchers study how people react in a controlled setting. A confederate is a person who seems like a normal participant but follows the researcher’s directions instead. This helps create conditions that feel natural while still keeping the experiment organized. The study shown here uses a two-group design to test imitation. Researchers asked whether participants were more likely to copy a person with more power than a person with similar...

experimental psychology

This collection provides a framework for observing how psychological experiments are embedded in the actual research process, starting from the initial research design to arriving at conclusions in a study. 

Compare real yoga with belief-only yoga in a two-group study of creativity, and see how placebo effects can influence clinical and psychological research.

Yoga Expectations and the Placebo Effect

Description

Transcript

Tags