Placebo Effect

[mcrews]

What we are talking about is not 'truely placebo effect' (as frank stated)
here is an example:
I give frank lee, Darin and Carlos each a geo metro to drive. I tell Frank Lee and carlos their cars are exactly modded to achieve optimal mileage.
(for the sake of the test I have only increased the air pressure in Carlos tires to 48psi, frank lee & darin are at 32)
Frank is the placebo.

Darin knows that he has no alterations and just drives.
Frank Lee thinks he has a 'modded' car and subconsiously drives better.
Carlos gets better mileage because of the mode (and subconsoiusly drives better)

In the medical/pharma field, the placebo effect can be as high as 15% of the blind group can 'feel' a positive result of the sugar tablet.

What we experience is really a 'shadow' effect. or ghost effect. or guilt effect.

But I agree that it exists.

[Frank Lee]

Aw Man, I wanted the modded car!

[mcrews]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

Aw Man, I wanted the modded car!

believe me....I gave A LOT of thought as to who got which car

[JRMichler]

Wikipedia is our friend: List of cognitive biases - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

See Experimenter's Bias and Selective Perception.

[Frank Lee]

I learned back in college about placebo, test bias, and test procedure. I did a bunch of aeromods and coast-down testing and wanted so badly for the data to confirm the efficacy of the mods, but it didn't. And that's what I presented in my paper even though cherry picking "favorable" results did cross my mind.

[MetroMPG]

Ah, but didn't you use a shaky measurement technique that relied on you watching an analog gauge & manually pressing a stopwatch start/stop? There's a lot of wetware in the methodology adding to the experimental noise.

---

Related to this topic: http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...ery-11445.html

[Frank Lee]

There sure was!

[HilseeJ]

If you want to experience a true demonstration of this effect, buy an ecomodder sticker and put in on the left side of your car so you see it every time you get in your car.

To this day, I swear it has some magical MPG boosting effect.

[mcrews]

Originally Posted by HilseeJ

If you want to experience a true demonstration of this effect, buy an ecomodder sticker and put in on the left side of your car so you see it every time you get in your car.

To this day, I swear it has some magical MPG boosting effect.

Probably one of the greatest contributions of this site is the effect that we are referring to.

You can find several sites that promote mpg. But you feel like you have to get a 'pocket protector' to post there on a regular basis. Or give up your believe in physics and chemestry.

Here there is the idea that anyone can play in the sandbox That has a very 'it's ok' sffect on each persons efforts to get better mpg!

[skyking]

In my case, I have to take the long look at what I am doing. I have no scangauge, no instant gratification, and I drive the truck sporadically. It takes me months to really accumulate enough data so I gave up on ABA testing. I just do things that are proven to help, sit back and enjoy the 'ride'. I'll make three changes to the truck in the course of the next tankful.