The Meaning Response and the Ethics of Avoiding Placebos

Abstract

Because the “placebo effect” seems to result from “deception,” it is often disparaged and despised. Rethinking this and realizing that these benefits flow largely from the meaning of medical encounters (and are far better under-stood as “meaning responses”); realizing that there need be no deception to elicit them and that they are often very desirable, engaging fundamental human biological pathways, puts the ethical dilemma in a new light. It seems unethical to avoid—to evade—coming to a full understanding of how meaning can so profoundly improve human well-being.