The placebo effect is real. And even more real if it hurts. That was the lesson from last year’s Ig Nobel Prize in Medicine, awarded to a trio of Swiss, German and Belgian researchers who showed that fake medicine with painful side effects – a burning nose, in this case – is more effective than fake medicine with no side effects at all.
The researchers created a two-step experiment. In step one, participants received a blast of the powerful painkiller fentanyl in the form of a nasal spray. In step two, they received a blast of painful heat. The test was supposedly to measure fentanyl’s ability to kill pain.
Except the fentanyl was fake – it was a placebo. And there were two kinds. The first kind of fake-fentanyl was a bland, painless saline solution. The second kind was actually spiked with capsaicin, one of the active components of chili peppers. Which, taken right up the nose, is the stuff of absurd TikTok challenges – it burns.
When the blast of painful heat was administered, researchers discovered that those who had first received the peppery fake-fentanyl in step one reported less pain from the heat in step two than those who had received the bland saline solution. In other words, if the placebo hurt, it was more effective in reducing perceptions of pain. Fake works better if it hurts.
This finding, which may have broad implications for how placebos are conceived of in medicine, is classic Ig Nobel material: science that first makes you laugh, then makes you think. The award, created in 1991 by Marc Abrahams of the Journal of Irreproducible Results, has honoured decades of eccentric brilliance – from levitating frogs to the physics of slipping on banana peels – and its 35th edition will be held this September at Boston University, complete with mini-opera, circus acts and bemused Nobel Laureates physically handing over the prizes.
Switzerland has long had a proud place in this irreverent hall of fame. There was the team that proved playing the didgeridoo can reduce snoring. The forensic researchers who determined whether full or empty beer bottles are better for busting heads in a bar fight. The economists who found a correlation between political corruption and politicians’ waistlines. And the biologists who proved that wine connoisseurs really can detect the scent of a single fruit fly in a glass of wine. (And assuredly deserved a prize for demonstrating that American hip hop music makes the best-tasting cheese.)
But perhaps the most uniquely Swiss Ig Nobel win is the Peace Prize awarded not to scientists, but to the Swiss people themselves. Or rather, to the Swiss Constitution, which recognises the inherent dignity of plants – a principled stance referenced in Prodir’s own manifesto. When we say care of natural resources is in our Swiss DNA, we mean it literally.
So as the Ig Nobels prepare to crown another round of improbable brilliance, one thing is certain: being serious about science doesn’t mean you can’t have a little fun – or a little pain – along the way.
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