Nir Eyal “Why These £39 Placebo Pills Actually Work”

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Apr 20, 2026

Nir Eyal, author and behavioral design expert behind Hooked and Indistractable, explores why placebos work. He traces belief’s power from Richter’s rats to placebo steroids and open-label pills. He explains how context, branding, and expectations alter pain, performance, and perception in surprising ways.

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ANECDOTE

Rescued Rats Swam 60 Hours Not 15 Minutes

Kurt Richter trained wild rats by rescuing them during forced swims so they learned escape was possible and kept swimming far longer.
After conditioning, wild rats swam about 60 hours versus 15 minutes, showing belief unlocked persistence.

INSIGHT

Expectation Rewires Pain Processing

Expectation alters pain processing by recruiting the prefrontal cortex to inhibit pain signals.
In Wager's fMRI study a bookstore vanishing cream halved reported pain and showed PFC activity blocking pain regions.

INSIGHT

Placebos Change Feeling Not The Body

Placebos can match subjective improvements of real treatments while failing objective measures tied to the body.
In an asthma trial placebo inhaler and acupuncture improved feelings but only real albuterol improved lung function.

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There's a pill on Amazon called Fukitol.

It contains nothing. And yet people buy it, swear by it, and give it five stars.

Today, Nir Eyal explains the remarkable science behind why placebos work.

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Listen to the bonus episode: https://nudge.kit.com/40414a1b44

Nir’s book Beyond Belief: geni.us/beyondbelief

Nir’s free belief change guide: nirandfar.com/belief-change

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Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/phill-agnew/

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Today’s sources:

Ariel, G., & Saville, W. (1972). Anabolic steroids: The physiological effects of placebos. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 4(2), 124–126.

Branthwaite, A., & Cooper, P. (1981). Analgesic effects of branding in treatment of headaches. British Medical Journal (Clinical Research Ed.), 282(6276), 1576–1578.

Dawkins, L., Shahzad, F. Z., Ahmed, S. S., & Edmonds, C. J. (2011). Expectation of having consumed caffeine can improve performance and mood. Appetite, 57(3), 597–600.

Draganich, C., & Erdal, K. (2014). Placebo sleep affects cognitive functioning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 40(3), 857–864.

Kaptchuk, T. J. (2018). Open-label placebo: Reflections on a research agenda. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, 61(3), 311–334.

Lee, C., Linkenauger, S. A., Bakdash, J. Z., Joy-Gaba, J. A., & Profitt, D. R. (2011). Putting like a pro: The role of positive contagion in golf performance and perception. PLoS One, 6(10), e26016.

Plassmann, H., O'Doherty, J., Shiv, B., & Rangel, A. (2008). Marketing actions can modulate neural representations of experienced pleasantness. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105(3), 1050–1054.

Richter, C. P. (1957). On the phenomenon of sudden death in animals and man. Psychosomatic Medicine, 19(3), 191–198.

Rozenkrantz, L., Mayo, A. E., Ilan, T., Hart, Y., Noy, L., & Alon, U. (2017). Placebo can enhance creativity. PLoS One, 12, e0182466.

Wager, T. D., Rilling, J. K., Smith, E. E., Sokolik, A., Casey, K. L., Davidson, R. J., et al. (2004). Placebo-induced changes in fMRI in the anticipation and experience of pain. Science, 303(5661), 1162–1167.