Some time ago, I noted that horses getting acupuncture was meant to show that the treatment does not work via a placebo effect. (I also accused horses of only pretending acupuncture works as a way of punishing humans. I should start my anti-horse themed posts again - they amuse me.)
But now I see a recent study of the placebo effect in rats. It works with them. Who knew rats could be fooled like humans?
Well, now that I look via the wonders of Google - this has been known for a long time. There are studies back to at least 1963 on a placebo effect in rats. It turns out that dealing with animals has been an important bit of working out what the placebo effect is all about. There's a long paper from 2004 about the effect to be read here. (I've just skimmed it, but seems interested.)
I wonder how far down you have to get in the tree of life before the placebo effect doesn't work?
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