Why does choice enhance treatment effectiveness? Using placebo treatments to demonstrate the role of personal control.

In modern health care, individuals frequently exercise choice over health treatment alternatives. A growing body of research suggests that when individuals choose between treatment options, treatment effectiveness can increase, although little experimental evidence exists clarifying this effect. Four studies were conducted to test the hypothesis that exercising choice over treatment alternatives enhances outcomes by providing greater personal control.

"I guess what he said wasn't that bad": dissonance in nonconfronting targets of prejudice.

Although confrontations can be an effective means of reducing prejudicial responding, individuals often do not confront others due to the interpersonal costs. In the present research, we examined the intrapersonal implications of not confronting prejudice. In three studies, female participants were exposed to a confederate who made a sexist remark.

Beliefs about expectations moderate the influence of expectations on pain perception.

Background: Expectations congruently influence, or bias, pain perception. Recent social psychological research reveals that individuals differ in the extent to which they believe in expectation biases and that individuals who believe in expectation biases may adjust for this bias in their perceptions and reactions. That is, idiosyncratic beliefs about expectations can moderate the influence of expectations on experience.

Choice and placebo expectation effects in the context of pain analgesia.

The current experiment examined whether having choice over treatment options facilitates or inhibits the strength of placebo expectations in the context of pain perception. All participants were exposed to an aversive stimulus (i.e.

Placebo expectations and the detection of somatic information.

In a laboratory study we examined the hypothesis that placebo expectations enhance the initial identification of placebo-relevant sensations over placebo-irrelevant sensations. Participants (N = 102) were randomly assigned to one of three expectation groups. In the first group, participants ingested a placebo capsule and were told it was caffeine (deceptive expectation).

Concept priming and pain: an experimental approach to understanding gender roles in sex-related pain differences.

Prior research has found that sex differences in pain are partially due to individual variations in gender roles. In a laboratory study, we tested the hypothesis that the presence of covert gender role cues can also moderate the extent to which women and men experience pain. Specifically, we varied gender role cues by asking male and female participants to write about instances in which they behaved in a stereotypically feminine, masculine, or neutral manner.