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Friday, August 11, 2006

Truth in a Bottle? Welcome to the placebo bar:

Psychologist Alan Marlatt of the University of Washington, a man with an apparent sense of humor, built a complete bar in his laboratory and served drinks to college student volunteers that were actually non-alcoholic but tasted like the real thing. On videotape, his subjects can be seen laughing, carousing, and swaying tipsily in their seats. Then Dr. Marlatt enters the “bar” and announces to his subjects that they haven’t really been drinking. Their surprise and embarrassment is evident.

I wonder if they would have driven like drunks.

posted by Sydney on 8/11/2006 09:02:00 PM 1 comments

1 Comments:

Hi Doc.

Haven't had the opportunity to welcome you back, so . . . welcome back.

About that psychology experiment, Laurel and Hardy did a short sketch on this in one of their films from the 1930's. Our heroes went to a speakeasy with a bottle, and proceeded to turn themselves into silly drunks. Unbeknownst to them (but knownst to the viewers) their wives had substituted tea for liquor. So our heroes, expecting to become drunken - voila - behaved as perfectly intoxicated drunks.

It is interesting that academics would choose to study this, but the effect has apparently been well-known for decades. At least in Hollywood.

John Fembup (alias "anonymous")

By Anonymous, at 3:47 PM