Posted: May 26th, 2017

A pair of young athletes have particularly good games one day and afterwards refuse to allow their parents to wash their socks and underwear for fear that doing so will remove the good luck of the day

A pair of young athletes have particularly good games one day and afterwards refuse to allow their parents to wash their socks and underwear for fear that doing so will remove the good luck of the day. One set of parents complies, the other does not. The first child’s next game goes pretty well, but the other’s is not very successful. Could the placebo effect be operating in this scenario? Explain why you placebo does or doesn’t provide a good analysis of the situation.