Graduation Date
Spring 2026
Document Type
Thesis
Program
Master of Arts degree with a major in Psychology, option Academic Research
Committee Chair Name
Carrie Aigner
Committee Chair Affiliation
Cal Poly Humboldt Faculty or Staff
Second Committee Member Name
Mari Sanchez
Second Committee Member Affiliation
Cal Poly Humboldt Faculty or Staff
Third Committee Member Name
Amanda Hahn
Third Committee Member Affiliation
Cal Poly Humboldt Faculty or Staff
Keywords
Open-label placebo, Attention, Expectancy, Pain, Analgesia, Cold-pressor
Subject Categories
Psychology
Abstract
Placebo analgesia has shown promise in treating pain, but practitioners are reluctant to prescribe deceptive placebos. Open-label, or honestly prescribed placebos, offer an ethical alternative. Open-label placebos seem to work largely through experimenter-manipulated expectancy, as well as social/environmental factors. Additionally, verbally guided attention to relevant placebo sensations might bolster pain relief. In the present study, expectancy and attention were experimentally manipulated within a 2 (expectancy: high/low) x 2 (attention: high/low) between-subjects design with a no-treatment comparison group. Pain was experimentally induced in all five experimental groups using the well-established cold pressor task. The primary dependent variables were pain tolerance and pain rating. We hypothesized that high expectancy would result in higher pain tolerance and lower pain rating than low expectancy, and high attention would result in higher pain tolerance and lower pain rating than low attention. Further, high expectancy conditions would display higher pain tolerances and lower pain ratings when they were in the high attention condition compared to the low attention condition. Within a sample size of 91 college students, no significant main effects nor interactions were found for either dependent variable (p’s > .05). However, checks of expectancy indicate that the manipulation was effective F(1, 69) = 13.89, p< .001, η2 = .17. Implications for future pain and placebo research are discussed.
Citation Style
APA
Recommended Citation
Connelly, Miranda, "The effects of expectancies and attention to placebo relevant sensations on the open-label placebo response" (2026). Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects. 2561.
https://digitalcommons.humboldt.edu/etd/2561