The Role of Superstition in the Placebo Effect on Memory Performance

An, S., Malani, VD & Setia, A. The role of superstition in the placebo effect on memory performance. Cogent Process (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-021-01025-6

Commentary

This study will be a research to investigate whether the influence of superstition and placebo effect on behavior is related to superstition, placebo between, etc. And by this relationship, we aimed to determine if there is an effect on human cognition and behavior.

The researchers hypothesized that the more superstitious a person was, the more likely they were to experience a placebo effect and the better their performance on cognitive tasks.

The results showed that in the placebo condition, people with more superstitions remembered more words than people with fewer superstitions. However, in the control condition, those with less superstition remembered more words than those with more superstition.

These findings support the researchers' hypothesis, but are important because they show that there is an association between the placebo effect and superstition.