Case .docx

Surkova Daiana Case study Feeling Detoxified: Expectations, Effects, and Explanations Part I 1. They provide you with detailed explanation of the process. And the fact that you leave the spa with the feeling of refreshment makes it believable. 2. They don’t name the exact toxin that are getting neutralized. Maybe you didn’t even have these toxins. Part II 1. It’s the reaction between positively charged ions of Fe with negatively charged OH ions and the result of it is Fe(OH)2. And the color of this substance is redbrown. 2. Of course you should be concerned about that, it’s a poisonous gas that can cause damage to respiratory system and high concentration of it in the air is fatal. Part III 1. Two columns represent the number of patients and the numbers in parentheses represent percentage. 2. It’s better to focus on percentage because that would be easier to analyze the experiment. Also, I think looking at the highest percentage of each group and comparing these numbers between two questions will help to understand the results. 3. They were testing placebo effect. Maybe they wanted to see what factors exactly make it possible. 4. In total there are 3 control groups: the negative consultation group and two subgroups that received no treatment. The first one lacked “human factor” – the sympathetic doctor, and the other two didn’t receive the treatment. 6. From both groups the largest effect on improved health had patients that got treatment. 7. We see that most of the people who received positive consultation improved in health. And the most interesting part for me is the results from the second group: 52% of patients that got treatment also got better. And because of those numbers, I think the experiment showed that people automatically believe in words of professionals: if the doctor tells us these pills are going to help, we will believe him; if he says that we don’t need any medicine, we will think “Well, maybe I wasn’t as sick as I thought”. And most of patients won’t even question it, because we’re used to trust doctors, even if they’re unfriendly. 8. At first the spa’s personal assures you that by the end of the procedure you are going to feel refreshed, then they give chemical explanation of the processes happening in the bath, and not all people are chemists, so it is expected to think “Oh, they explained this in scientific manner that must be true”. So, all that combined leads to tricking yourself into believing that whole procedure will work.

Part IV 1. When they gave additional pamphlet with even more detailed explanation of the procedure. 3. Maybe now more companies began to introduce new treatments that in reality are something simple and don’t have any effects on their own, but nowadays people are quite careless and usually don’t go into details of the procedures or assigned medicaments so that’s why they work. 4. Knowing that the refreshment you felt at the end of the procedure is the result of placebo effect won’t let you fool your organism again. 5. Procedures based on placebo effect can’t stay effective for too long and also the gas it produces can cause damage to the patient. 6. Because sometimes treatments can be quite expensive so people may prefer much cheaper traditional medicine, not caring about it’s effectiveness and possible side effects.