These explanations lose many listeners once they hear, ‘That’s technically true, but…’Readers may be familiar with my views on the placebo effect. Which ‘placebo effect’? How large is this ‘true’ placebo effect, the seemingly magical effect that results from your body reacting to your mind’s insistence that you have taken some medicine. My guess is there’s no placebo pie left and those positing a true powerful placebo effect are effectively making a ‘placebo of the gaps’ argument. So when I say ‘the placebo effect is not real’, that is what I mean and I’ve yet to see any data that persuades me otherwise.