Great Expectations

While browsing the excellent neuroscience blog Mind Hacks I stumbled upon the fascinating video about the strange powers of the placebo effect. It’s a well-produced video that I’d recommend to anyone with three minutes to spare. The basic concept of the placebo effect (a perceived or actual reaction to a substance containing no medicine) is nothing new, but I never realized the severity of the effect can increase or decrease due to the number, size, branding and even packaging of the pill taken.

“A plain pill works worse than a branded one, a discounted pill works worse than a pricey one, and a pill in a plain box does worse than one that’s all shiny and shit” (I hereby reward the video’s creators’ bonus points for using the awesomely scientific term “shiny and shit”).

I’m officially intrigued. Not only does fancy packaging do wonders to the perceived value and performance of a product, but nice packaging can actually solicit a greater physical reaction from a sugar pill. Put that in your pipe and smoke it, packaging designers.

What should designers know about the psychology of expectation?

I’ve often marveled at the droves of people willing to throw down $300 on a pair of Beats headphones despite, you know, the product’s penchant for snapping in half and not working all that well. It isn’t too wild to think that the pretty box, celebrity endorsement and compelling design causes these consumers to perceive the sound quality to be better than it truly is, but is it possible that they actually hear the music better? Could the expectant mind compensate the same way it does when it encounters a sugar pill in a well-designed box?

“Sensory experience and thoughts can affect neurochemistry. The body's neurochemical system affects and is affected by other biochemical systems”. Neurochemistry plays an important part in auditory processing, so perhaps it’s possible that our sensory faculties improve when we’re expecting premium sensory experiences. Beats products do everything they possibly can to convince us that they offer better sound. Perhaps, by virtue of their persuasion, they do.

The actual medication in a pill isn’t the only thing that determines its effectiveness: shiny packages make them work better, apparently. Perhaps it doesn’t really matter whether or not Beats are the top performers in the audio market (they’re not: Sennheiser for life, yo).

Obviously this isn’t a very scientific discussion about the placebo effect– my sources include the ever estimable wikipedia– but it certainly makes a strong argument for investment in branding, product design and packaging. What we expect influences not only what we perceive but what we actually experience. Our expectations are defined by every detail and impression we associate with a product: not only the form and materials we interact with but the reputation of a brand, reviews, and random past experiences that have formed our biases.