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Diseases that resolve spontaneously can increase the belief that ineffective treatments work

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  • Blanco, Fernando
  • Matute, Helena

Abstract

Self-limited diseases resolve spontaneously without treatment or intervention. From the patient's viewpoint, this means experiencing an improvement of the symptoms with increasing probability over time. Previous studies suggest that the observation of this pattern could foster illusory beliefs of effectiveness, even if the treatment is completely ineffective. Therefore, self-limited diseases could provide an opportunity for pseudotherapies to appear as if they were effective.

Suggested Citation

  • Blanco, Fernando & Matute, Helena, 2020. "Diseases that resolve spontaneously can increase the belief that ineffective treatments work," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 255(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:255:y:2020:i:c:s0277953620302318
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113012
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. MacFarlane, Douglas & Hurlstone, Mark J. & Ecker, Ullrich K.H., 2020. "Protecting consumers from fraudulent health claims: A taxonomy of psychological drivers, interventions, barriers, and treatments," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 259(C).
    2. de Barra, Mícheál, 2017. "Reporting bias inflates the reputation of medical treatments: A comparison of outcomes in clinical trials and online product reviews," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 177(C), pages 248-255.
    3. Anastasia Ejova & Daniel J. Navarro & Paul H. Delfabbro, 2013. "Success-slope effects on the illusion of control and on remembered success-frequency," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 8(4), pages 498-511, July.
    4. Palan, Stefan & Schitter, Christian, 2018. "Prolific.ac—A subject pool for online experiments," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(C), pages 22-27.
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    Cited by:

    1. Fernando Blanco & Maria Manuela Moreno-Fernández & Helena Matute, 2020. "Are the symptoms really remitting? How the subjective interpretation of outcomes can produce an illusion of causality," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 15(4), pages 572-585, July.

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