
Placebo Button - luu
http://placebobutton.com/
======
codeshaman
Brilliant idea and I feel like I've already got what I pressed - "focus". The
first thing, of course, is to write a comment on HN and then I'll focus :)).

But the concept might just work.

People believe in crazy, irrational things and it actually seems to help them,
so why not a button which does this ?

Here's a story. Last month I've travelled to Romania, which is a beautiful
country and one of the main attractions there is the multitude of churches and
beautiful monasteries on top of mountains. So I arrived at this monastery
where a famous priest was buried and people from all over the country and the
world come and visit his grave. They wait for hours in line and eventually
they get maybe 30 seconds in front of his grave and they kneel and kiss the
cross and make all kinds of wishes. From a rational perspective, what those
people are doing is totally absurd - even if the dead priest could manipulate
this world from 'the other world', why would people think that in order to be
helped they have to kiss his grave ?

But I've heard countless stories of miracle cures - cancers, paralysis, etc,
after people visited his grave so maybe there is a force at work which helps
them, which I think is the force of placebo.

Stories like this are abundant all over the world so if you're in the Church
of the Digital, a digital button might just be a trigger for some force inside
our minds.

~~~
zachrose
Which church in Romania is this?

~~~
codeshaman
It's called the Prislop Monastery:
[http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g675106-d457109...](http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g675106-d4571093-Reviews-
Prislop_Monastery-
Hunedoara_Hunedoara_County_Western_Romania_Transylvania.html)

------
jMyles
> That means, if I give you a placebo, and tell you it's a placebo, there's a
> 1 in 3 chance it will help alleviate symptoms of whatever I say it's for.

I've seen this avert bad trips.

"This is a coin. It's just a regular coin from my pocket, but I want you to
carry, and know that as long as you carry this coin - for the rest of the
night - you'll be safe."

~~~
frost_knight
I've heard of this idea before and it sounds great. But I can think of a hack
for it that could make the trip even worse.

"This is a coin. It's just a regular coin from my pocket, but I want you to
carry, and know that as long as you carry this coin - for the rest of the
night - you'll be safe."

(lean in close to whisper into the recipient's ear)

"But if you lose the coin...if you lose the coin, you're doomed, mate.
Completely f*cking doomed."

~~~
EC1
My mind automatically read that last sentence in a pikey accent.

------
gcb0
in pro audio equipment, there is often a flashy colored button on the panel,
unmarked, that the documentation call the "client button". it does absolutely
nothing, and the manufacturer suggest you press it when the client is annoying
you for "more weight" or "more color" or some other nonsense.

~~~
kdamken
This is brilliant, reminds me of the story I heard of how Michelangelo was
working on a statue, might have been the David, and the patron walked in and
said something along the lines of, "Looks good, but the nose is a little big,
can you make it a little smaller?".

Michelangelo knew the nose was just right, so he grabbed a handful of marble
dust, went up to the face and pretended to chisel it while slowly letting out
his handful of dust.

When he was done, the patron said, "There! It's perfect."

Really wish I had had a button like that back when I was doing audio
production.

~~~
Panoramix
Was it because he couldn't tell, or because he didn't want to push on the
issue?

~~~
Buge
Couldn't tell.

See bikeshedding. People just want to feel like they contributed something.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law_of_trivialit...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law_of_triviality)

~~~
Panoramix
Interesting article. In my experience, the converse is often true: Engineers
want to solve the difficult issues, while the more trivial get relatively
little attention and end up causing most of the issues.

------
kevinmchugh
Choose your own well-researched 'tokenadult rejection of placebo efficacy
here:
[https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byPopularity&prefix=false&page=...](https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byPopularity&prefix=false&page=0&dateRange=all&type=comment&query=author:tokenadult%20placebo)

~~~
oliwary
Interesting. I wonder if this is affected by the recent discovery of the tube
connecting the immune system to the brain though?

~~~
igravious
You jest? If not, explain or source? Thx

~~~
oaktowner
Not advocating for its veracity, but [1].

[1]
[http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/06/150601122445.ht...](http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/06/150601122445.htm)

------
SlyShy
Reminds me of a brain hack I employ. Intentionally worshipping Placebo as a
god makes me laugh, thus activating his miraculous healing powers:
[http://zencephalon.com/placebo](http://zencephalon.com/placebo)

~~~
egypturnash
This is beautiful and I may have to start calling upon Placebo now an then.

~~~
SlyShy
Oh, wow, U made The Tarot of the Silicon Dawn? Beautiful deck!

~~~
egypturnash
Yep! Glad you like it, thanks!

These days I'm mostly busy with a graphic novel:
[http://egypt.urnash.com/rita/](http://egypt.urnash.com/rita/)

------
drvortex
It's not the placebo effect working despite the user not having faith in it.

By providing the information you do on the web page, you are suggesting (and
perhaps convincing) the user that the placebo will work despite being a
placebo. Therefore, it might work by a placebo effect on the effectiveness of
the placebo.

You are placebo-ing the placebo. Inception all over again, eh.

~~~
jobigoud
What if the thing you ask it is to get rid of the irrational mechanisms that
makes placebos works on you even though you know they are placebos?

------
stdbrouw
On the other hand there's
[http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM200105243442106](http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM200105243442106),
a meta-analysis which shows that while placebos might make people feel better,
you don't actually get better – which is about what you'd expect and probably
not shocking to most of you... but you'd be surprised at the mystical powers
that are sometimes ascribed to placebos.

------
fmeyer
Didn't worked
[https://i.imgur.com/4ERBby4.png](https://i.imgur.com/4ERBby4.png)

~~~
aw3c2
You did not specify who or what should turn red. Probably you are now, when
realising that.

~~~
fmeyer
Damn!!! [https://imgur.com/SU36LXY](https://imgur.com/SU36LXY)

------
huuu
I read a story about a guy who changed his password into his next goal. Every
day he had to type it and was reminded by his goal.

This button might also be a great goal reminder...

Edit: [https://medium.com/@manicho/how-a-password-changed-my-
life-7...](https://medium.com/@manicho/how-a-password-changed-my-
life-7af5d5f28038)

~~~
larkspur
I've done that. It's the equivalent of "I love my wife". Guess whose idea it
was? :)

------
Ryan_Jones
Make the SEO play here. Create a static link for each button with the text
that I type in, so I can link people right to it. Then, with proper title and
headings, etc you can probably get some traffic for "random long tail term
button"

~~~
randytayler
Love it. I think I'll implement that.

~~~
larkspur
I would love to see this feature.

My wife gets headaches. A linkable button text allows me to send her a magic
"headache relief" button. Much bigger impact than a self-prescribed button.

~~~
randytayler
[http://placebobutton.com/?b=Cure%20my%20headache](http://placebobutton.com/?b=Cure%20my%20headache)
works now.

------
gjm11
There are lots of actual placebo buttons out there in the world on pedestrian
crossings, elevators, etc.; see
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placebo_button](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placebo_button)
for an overview.

~~~
cosarara97
Placebo buttons in pedestrian crossing street lights are plain evil. Also,
[https://xkcd.com/277/](https://xkcd.com/277/)

~~~
giarc
But also not 100% the case. Where I live (Calgary, AB) most cross walk signals
are only activated by pressing the button. If you don't press the button, you
just get the orange hand the whole time.

~~~
dorfsmay
True, and same with the button to keep the door open in elevators. Both where
huge surprises to me when I moved here.

------
sopooneo
Noting that some replies here are describing positive results, I wonder if
atheist organizations could make use of the principal. Have an understanding
that for the one hour every Sunday that you spend together in the while
building, you will say things you all acknowledge as nonsense. But keep up the
pretense for that hour and do the chants and make the incantations because _we
find that it makes us feel happier and more looked after_. Then stream out the
doors at the end to resume our devout denial.

Actually, many people may be doing this already.

~~~
danieltillett
Yes they are.

I have always thought it would be a good idea to rationally take all the parts
of religious and social societies and bring them together in a way that
provides everything that religion provides without all the useless and bad
ideas. Combine this with technology and you would have a hit.

~~~
jpindar
That's what the Unitarian church is supposed to be, I think. I attended a few
of their services out of curiosity, and they were similar to church services
except there was no mention of religion. Instead of hymns there was classical
and folk music, instead of bible readings there were readings from secular
literature (Thoreau seemed to be a favorite), and so on. There was a lot of
talk about self-improvement, doing volunteer work, etc.

~~~
dragonwriter
Unitarian-Universalism is a big tent which includes both a (heterodox, from
the perspective of mainstream Christianity, which is Trinitarian) branch of
Christianity and a diverse array of non-Christian congregations.

------
paulbaumgart
I typed in "cure my superstitious beliefs," and it totally worked!!!

~~~
irl_zebra
The placebo effect is not a superstitious belief, however, if that's what
you're trying to imply. This isn't a tarot card or horoscope button or
something. Placebos are legitimate science.

~~~
egypturnash
Or flip it:

Placebos are another face on the basic processes underlying what we call
"magic", with all of the "mystical" "woo" removed.

------
iMark
"Fix my code" has yet to produce a tangible result, but I shan't give up
easily!

 _click_

 _click_

...

~~~
CPLX
Maybe I should have tried that instead of "Smite My Enemies" huh.

~~~
iMark
I don't know. A good smiting does wonders for the soul.

------
eblume
That was just _bizarre_. Had a stomach ache. Typed 'stomach ache', hit the
button. Ache gone.

The brain is a strange, strange organ.

~~~
orthecreedence
Lucky you, my sinuses are still plugged.

------
d--b
This is great, but I have a feeling that it's not very well executed. For the
placebo effect to work you still need to take the pill, which means that you
suggest something might happen. Here the reaction time is way too fast, so
it's obviously a fluke for the mind. Add a progress bar that simulates a long
and non linear process, and I think the effect is going to be much greater.

------
koz1000
So I had a similar idea a long time ago (when I worked at a gaming company) to
put a large illuminated button right on the front panel of the machine, simply
labelled:

    
    
        [ LUCK ]
    

...that did absolutely nothing. It would have (by design) NOT been connected
to anything other than lamp power. I'm convinced it would have been a great
hit. My colleagues were not as convinced.

------
solox3
Misinterpreted the question, "what do you want your button to do", and typed
"Turn red." Needless to say, it turned red.

~~~
frogpelt
> Needless to say

Ha!

------
hyperpallium
Many ailments have a stress-related component, as the purpose of our stress
response is to handle an immediate threat, diverting energy away from long-
term tasks like healing, fighting infection etc.

A placebo is a reassurance, that we don't need to worry, we are being looked
after, protected, safe, and everything will be ok.

Thus, the immune system gets its resources back, and gets on with its job. We
heal.

 _sorry, no references, just seems a simple explanation of the observed
evidence (eg so strong that double-blind experimental design is required to
prevent it confounding drug test results)._

------
rnhmjoj
You think it has cured you even you know it is a placebo because there is a
study that says it and you put your faith in it. The study itself is a
placebo. A metaplacebo.

~~~
daenz
Now that I know the study is fake, does the whole thing collapse? :)

~~~
pattisapu
It's turtles all the way down.

~~~
tripzilch
Can we eat them?

------
moron4hire
I typed in "cure my headache", clicked the button, and felt the unmistakable
feeling of endorphins flooding my brain. Maybe. Might be mistaken.

~~~
jgmmo
similarly, I typed 'cure my migraines' and felt relief at the sight of 'Done!'

------
olympus
Doing it to yourself isn't so much the placebo effect, but rather
autosuggestion. It was created by Émile Coué, who used to tell his patients to
tell themselves every morning, "Every day, I am getting better" (in French of
course).

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autosuggestion](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autosuggestion)

~~~
joedavison
The actual quote is,

"Every day in every way, I am getting better and better"

(Original: "Tous les jours à tous points de vue je vais de mieux en mieux")

------
bturn021
I'm a phd student in marketing and my research is on the placebo effect. Not
only does the research back up the idea of a "placebo" button, but also its
evil cousin the "nocebo". That is, if you typed in something negative (I.e.
This will make my head hurt) then if you are prone to suggestion (as many
people are) the. You will feel worse.

------
jakobegger
I already feel much better after pressing the button.

------
synthmeat
I typed up "Placebo Effect" in the little box, clicked, and - wouldn't you
know it - I felt cured from Placebo Effect instantly!

~~~
pestaa
But how would you bring it back?

------
crimsonalucard
This button needs to enable url query parameters so I can send custom buttons
to other people.

~~~
randytayler
Love it. I'm gonna do it. (I made the site a couple years back.)

------
Animats
Soon to be available for iPhone, Android, and Windows Phone. Only $2.50 per
month. You can opt out of marketing communications for an extra $3.95 per
month.

~~~
paweln
It is already available for android (I made it). Right now is free (but it
might contain additional premium buttons in the future;). If you would like to
try it go here
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=it.nadolski.pl...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=it.nadolski.placebobutton)

~~~
Animats
With in-app purchases!

------
jhildings
It worked with <marquee> and other HTML tags , not sure if bug or feature :D

~~~
josephmx
Looks like it just puts HTML onto the page, you can do JavaScript as well at a
glance (so long as you add <script></script> and an event to trigger, since
pageload already happened)

------
CompanyLaser
I entered "Self Destruct DO NOT PRESS!"

...FWEW! Just the adrenaline kick I needed.

------
charlysisto
You probably know the joke (from popstar Zizek) :

When a friend of Niels Bohr (quantum theory) goes to his house in the country
side he's bewildered by a horse shoe hanging on the great scientific genius's
door. When Niels opens the friends asks : "but truly a rational man like you,
how could you give any credit to such superstitions" and Niels Bohr answers :
"Well I heard that superstition works even if you don't believe in it"

Yes I'm amazed by the power of placebo because "it works even if you know its
a one/don't believe in it."

I actually wrote in the placebo field : "Give me a break". And my God it
worked. I felt relieved. Like that weight on my chest just faded away.
Although I suspect the fact the button/pill is blue has something to do with
it.

Anyway who cares... "Give me a steak"

------
ethagknight
A list of items entered into the Placebo Button would be quite interesting,
grouped together by similarities.

------
drewmate
That flashing background effect is a little off-putting. At first I thought
something was wrong with the fluorescent lights in my office, then I realized
I don't have any fluorescent lights in my office...

------
larkspur
Could we have a red button, which would be better for "activating" suggestions
like increased energy, in addition to the blue button, best for "inhibiting"
suggestions like pain relief?

------
DrBergie
How about hint text in the edit box that changes for each page serve: "I will
become a better person" "The neighbors will become less noisy" "I will achieve
my goals in life"

------
egypturnash
What a beautiful piece of magic for rationalists!

Really. Go read 'The Camel Rides Again' with an open mind:
[http://thebaptistshead.co.uk/2007/09/16/the-camel-rides-
agai...](http://thebaptistshead.co.uk/2007/09/16/the-camel-rides-again-a-
primer-in-magick/) (it's short) and consider how this is any different from
the methods described there.

------
billpg
I seem to recall an application where the developer inserted a completely
pointless delay after clicking the button before reporting completion, because
people couldn't quite believe that a computer (or anything) could complete
such a big important task in a fraction of a second.

Maybe this button should wait a random period of time. Its doing really
important work.

------
bshimmin
I asked it to finish all my client work this week so I could spend more time
with my family and also work on my neglected side projects. Looking in git,
there are zero new commits, so I'm assuming this didn't work (or the fairies
it invokes don't believe in version control, which is equally worrying). 1
star, would not click again.

------
morganvachon
I tried "make the work day go by faster" (I'm currently stuck at the sales
desk -- again -- instead of getting real work done, because the lead rep is on
vacation -- again). I've been browsing HN for the past 10 minutes of my
afternoon break, and it's like the break was over way too soon. So...working,
maybe?

------
loganlucid
This is normal human tendencies and I believe even placebo effect is part of
daily routine...which could be changed just as habits...there could be certain
chances that it will turn once individual brain to be addictive.....its funny
that blackmajic is shifting its platform to software...serious upgrade...

~~~
tripzilch
it may be "magick", but how is it "black magick"? seems more like a "chaos
magick" thing, and they've been exploring the digital side of this for a
couple of decades already, since the 90s at least (that I know about).

------
wkcamp
I already have begun levitating...In just a few days, I will finally be able
to fly--just like Superman.

------
randytayler
FYI, I added the ability to pass a parameter in, and share your button. So,
like,
[http://placebobutton.com/?b=Cure%20my%20headache](http://placebobutton.com/?b=Cure%20my%20headache)

Thanks everybody!

------
stalker
It remind me this: [http://gajitz.com/push-button-wait-forever-crosswalk-
buttons...](http://gajitz.com/push-button-wait-forever-crosswalk-buttons-are-
fake/)

------
codazoda
I wonder if a reminder would work in the same way. Set a recurring reminder on
your phone. Dismissing it is your Placebo. The act of swiping that
notification off your phone just might fix what ails you.

------
varunjuice
Focusing illusion states "Nothing In Life Is As Important As You Think It Is,
While You Are Thinking About It"

I think the Placebo button addresses this, as this is a cause of significant
stress in our lives.

------
chx
Crazy as it sounds but as some/many/most illnesses are psychosomatic just by
making yourself believe you'll be healthy you actually will be. This is solid
science not some mumbo-jumbo.

------
snowwrestler
Awesome way to build a database of people's biggest problems.

------
gtrubetskoy
Can I set the text via a url or query arg, e.g.
[http://placebobutton.com/?foo+bar](http://placebobutton.com/?foo+bar) ?

------
Procrastes
Just at a glance, it doesn't seem to record the requests. This would be a
great stealth survey for problems to solve if it saved the requests
anonymously.

~~~
jqm
Most of the requests probably wouldn't be practically solvable (by computers
anyway).

It would be an interesting survey though.

------
amelius
I'd like to see the placebo effect correlated with IQ.

------
skidoo
My favorite version was this:

[http://vhemt.org/philrel.htm#button](http://vhemt.org/philrel.htm#button)

------
Bdiem
So, what did I want the button to do? I tried the following with success:
"visual changes on press then revert to original state"

------
rsync
You can make this very mind-twistingly self-referential ...

What if you enter in this phrase:

"Pressing this button will cause my placebo effect to go away"

~~~
ghubbard
Solar eclipse? [0]

[0] [http://oglaf.com/evensong/](http://oglaf.com/evensong/) Warning: Previous
and Next Story pages of linked cartoon are NSFW (cartoon sex) and the linked
page might even be NS depending on how prudish your workplace is about
language.

------
caseysoftware
I prefer the Ham Button: [http://hambutton.com/](http://hambutton.com/)

------
0xdeadbeefbabe
A mechanical button would work even better. Now that's science or at least a
hypothesis you could test scientifically.

~~~
firethief
Is that true? I wonder how the trueness of that has varied over time. At
first, who knew what computers could do ("pray, Mr. Babbage..."), then the
magic wore off and mechanical buttons were still what got things done, now
we're headed for "what's a mechanical button"...

~~~
0xdeadbeefbabe
'course it's true it's a hypothesis.

------
vishalzone2002
I can't believe this made it to the top of HN. Shouldn't it be Show HN? BTW,
did not work for me for that stats.

~~~
randytayler
_I_ didn't post it to HN. I built the site 2 years ago and somebody else just
discovered it. :)

------
Houshalter
I wonder if being told that "a placebo works, even though you know it is a
placebo", is itself a placebo.

------
hamburglar
I clicked it 3 times so my EV would be 1.

------
bhayden
I typed that I would be very productive today, and I was more productive than
I've been in weeks.

------
bhartzer
So if I click it 3 times one of those times my wish will come true? (Well,
scientifically speaking?)

------
flowless
Typed 'make people stop using javascript'. And it didn't work cause of
NoScript :(

------
ljk
what if by pressing the button you get the feeling of accomplishment without
doing any of the work?
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHopJHSlVo4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHopJHSlVo4)

------
scottmcdot
It would be good if I could pre-write the purpose of the button and email it
to a friend.

------
myth_buster
It would be nice to see the data.

------
_sb1
Is "placebo works even when its known that its a placebo" a placebo ?

------
dmd
I typed "make it not so quiet in here" and clicked it. It worked!

------
chris-at
So is there a placebo button that supports "force touch" yet? ;)

------
ph0rque
I typed, "make me a millionaire" and it didn't work :(.

~~~
tromp
I typed "improve click count" and it worked like a charm.

But then I tried "cure RSI" and hundreds of clicks later it only seemed to
have gotten worse...

~~~
kefka
Wrong game. Go here:

[http://orteil.dashnet.org/cookieclicker/](http://orteil.dashnet.org/cookieclicker/)

------
nusbit
may I ask you how much you make with ads? ( just out of curiosity )

~~~
randytayler
I built the site; until today I made approximately ZERO dollars. Today I've
seen 20k+ hits, and made $60.

~~~
nusbit
Thanks for answering. That's way more than I expected!

------
ourmandave
Does it work if I write a cron job to click the button for me?

------
rudyl313
A placebo won't work if you know it's a placebo.

~~~
stordoff
Placebos may still work, even if you know it is a placebo -
[http://www.theguardian.com/science/2010/dec/22/placebo-
effec...](http://www.theguardian.com/science/2010/dec/22/placebo-effect-
patients-sham-drug)

------
robbrit
I've been pushing this all afternoon. Feels great.

------
pikachu_is_cool
I typed "kill me" and it didn't work.

~~~
vinchuco
Not instantly

~~~
pikachu_is_cool
I typed "kill me right now" and it didn't work.

------
Hengjie
I should grow my startup this way. Seems to work!

------
BlackLamb
Now open source the data. :)

------
jtth
That sound is fantastic.

------
larkspur
Mindhacker News.

------
jlebrech
I cured aids

------
Dewie3
> Did you know the Placebo Effect can occur even when you know it's a placebo?
> It's true.

Wait... a meta-placebo? :-)

------
femto113
I tried "Raise my HN Karma". So far nothing.

------
gulbrandr
Why so much code for a single button?

    
    
      <table id="btn_table" style="padding-bottom:10px" height="300" width="300">
        	<tbody><tr><td style="cursor:pointer; background-image: url(img/button.png); background-repeat:no-repeat;" onclick="pushbutton()" height="300" align="center" valign="middle">
    			<table height="250" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="250"><tbody><tr><td align="center" valign="middle"><span id="btn_text" style="width:250px; word-wrap:break-word; color:#ffffff; text-align:center; font-family: Arial bold, Helvetica, sans serif; font-size:36px"></span></td></tr></tbody></table>
    		</td></tr>
    	</tbody></table>

~~~
Reedx
Because they're not a web developer?

~~~
randytayler
Because I'm a LAZY web developer.

~~~
quadlock
I want to be able to send someone a link to a specific button.

~~~
randytayler
[http://placebobutton.com/?b=Cure%20my%20headache](http://placebobutton.com/?b=Cure%20my%20headache)
will work now. :)

