- You've probably heard of the placebo effect
where a non medical drug can provide
real physiological change.
When you take a placebo, if you really, truly believe
that it's going to work, your brain can be tricked
into releasing the chemicals that are associated
with that effect.
We decided to test the placebo effect on our office
to see if we can trick people into having more energy.
(upbeat dance music)
- For a science experiment on homoeopathic medicine,
would you be willing to take energy pills
for seven days?
- No.
- No?
Oh, well.
- What's it going to do to me?
Like, what...
- The effect should be increased energy
throughout the day though you could
become slightly irritable.
Maybe lose sex drive a little bit.
Those are the only two recorded side effects.
- Alright, for science.
- [Girl] For science!
- Awesome.
- [Voiceover] And just like that in less than two hours,
one of our test subjects was already reporting
feeling the effects of the pill.
- I am super, super wired right now.
Like I feel like I'm in the matrix,
like I can see things different.
I don't really know how to describe it
other than maybe like an alcohol buzz?
It almost feels like I'm buzzed.
I'm a little freaked out, I'm not gonna lie.
- A little bit, I think it did help a little bit.
Yeah, why not?
- Usually at the end of the day,
I just wanna sleep, I just wanna rest,
but after that I did feel like I'm okay.
A couple days ago I went rock climbing
and I was able to do like five hours.
I don't know if it was the pill or if it was me
but I was able to do it.
- I took it right before I drove home
which is when I always feel the sleepiest
when I'm driving home because traffic kind
of just lulls me to sleep so I decided the pill
and when I was in the car, I was just losing my mind.
My hands were jittery.
When I got home, my eyes were super open.
I just felt like I had twice the amount
of energy that I should.
- So I've been taking the energy pills,
this is the third day and I still feel nothing.
The first day, maybe, when I took it, there was a little
like a little surge but I think that was more mental
than anything.
And the rest of the time I took it,
it was just nothing.
I'm pretty certain you guys gave me just empty capsules.
- [Voiceover] Cool, so we did give you placebos.
- You did?
- [Voiceover] So, don't worry.
- Ah, I knew it (laughing).
- I actually, from day one, knew that you guys
gave them to me.
I was like, hmm, they never mentioned the name
of this, I wonder if they're placebos.
I wonder if mentally I was like, these aren't real
and that interfered with how they could affect me?
- It's weird, you're just tricking your mind but it works.
- I feel like my brain is pretty magical.
And that if I just trick into doing more of what I want
I can have a very happy life.