Everyday Things that are The Placebo Effect at Work

Author image for Eric Lund
Eric Lund
Aug 15, 2020 11:00 PM EDT

For everything that humans are good at, we can be pretty dumb sometimes. For a lot of people, the process of thinking something is working is more important than it actually working, so we get weird things like unnecessary loading screens and needless weights in headphones. For more intriguing behind-the-scenes work, here are sketchy secrets from various industries.

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  • 01
    Text - dsynadinos 63.0k points · 2 days ago How long it takes a Coinstar to process and count coins and return a receipt. It finishes quickly. So quickly that folks are skeptical of the accuracy. So a fake delay (with fake counting noises) was built in giving folks more confidence in the results.
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  • 02
    Text - Korganos-moon 39.0k points · 2 days ago Beats headphones have weights inside them to make them heavier and give the illusion of quality and sturdiness.
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  • 03
    Text - Pandaburn 38.8k points · 2 days ago I'm not sure if it still does this, but at one time Google Docs intercepted the ctrl+s shortcut and briefly changes the cursor to the "thinking" cursor (hourglass, beachball, whatever your computer does). You don't need to save your google docs. They save every tiny change on the server. But people are used to doing it.
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  • 04
    Text - MeToolMovement 31.9k points · 2 days ago I install commercial audio/video systems. On bigger, more involved jobs like stadiums and arenas, we have AV consultants who don't work for my company but are a big link in the chain, as far as designing and EQing the finished system. I don't know how many times I've been up in a 80' boom lift and they want the azimuth or down angle of a speaker adjusted by some ridiculously small amount. So you get (back) up there, bang a couple wrenches on the sp
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  • 05
    Text - _suspect_zero_ 29.1k points · 2 days ago When my cat wants fresh food, but he still has some in his bowl, I pretend to put more in there. He usually falls for it.
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  • 06
    Text - JuracekPark34 28.7k points · 2 days ago S The original Febreze was unscented, but nobody believed it worked so they added scent to it
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  • 07
    Text - LegoMySplunk 27.9k points · 2 days ago · edited 2 days ago As an IT person, giving a user a new monitor will make them swear their computer is faster.
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  • 08
    Text - LadleFullOfCrazy 27.8k points · 2 days ago The exaggerated sounds of some vacuum cleaners, microwaves and cars to make them sound powerful. The loading screens on some apps that make it seem like they are doing something complex.
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  • 09
    Text - mangoQuesadilla 1.4k points · 2 days ago Laugh tracks.
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  • 10
    Text - HarlanCedeno 26.5k points · 2 days ago Airport Security. Homeland Security's own inspectors were able to get illegal items through TSA checkpoints 70% of the time.
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  • 11
    Text - im_a_bordercollie 25.7k points · 2 days ago· edited 2 days ago S That minty fresh, zesty 'clean' feeling you get from toothpaste. It started as a marketing strategy and caught on, and now almost all toothpaste is mint because we associate the minty freshness with cleanliness.
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  • 12
    Text - UcallmeNightHawk 24.6k points · 2 days ago 3 When cake mixes first came out you only had to add water to them, but too many housewives felt like that was cheating and wouldn't buy cake mixes. So the cake mix companies added another step. The eggs. It worked, apparently the cracking and adding of the eggs to the batter was enough to make it feel more “homemade" and cake mixes became extremely popular.
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  • 13
    Text - wbs3164 19.9k points · 2 days ago As a former lifeguard, I can assure you that whatever "cleanup" you see lifeguards doing after someone vomits in the pool is almost certainly just show. There isn't really anything you can do, you just let the filter/chlorine take care of it and pretend to clean to please the suburban moms.
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  • 14
    Text - iwillnottryagain 18.2k points · 2 days ago O Do commissioned creative stuff, if I deliver same or next day, people don't think I spent enough time on it. If I wait three days to driver, people are happy because they assume I worked on their project nonstop even though I was done a day or two prior
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  • 15
    Text - sonishi30 16.9k points · 2 days ago Your blanket covering your legs/yourself from a serial killer at night
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  • 16
    Text - heartattk1 13.2k points · 2 days ago I swear my car performs better immediately after it's cleaned
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  • 17
    Text - hibikikun 11.6k points · 2 days ago Loading spinners on web pages. I once had a user complain to me a web app was too slow (and it was pretty fast). So I tested him by making the animation spinner spin much faster. He went to my boss to praise me how much faster the web app was. (spin.js is what i was using)
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  • 18
    Text - Kittynoodlesoup 9.9k points · 2 days ago That "free shipping" is a better deal. It generally means they've added the cost into the product instead, but you feel like you've gotten a better deal.
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  • 19
    Text - matildaisdead 9.1k points · 2 days ago · edited 2 days ago O When I was a waitress 100 years ago, my customers asked me all the time to turn the heat up/down because they were too hot/cold. I'd be like "oh yeah, definitely! Let me go take care of that for you." Then I would go stand in the back, drink some water and then head back to the table and tell them I'd adjusted the temperature. It worked every single time.
    via AskReddit
  • 20
    Text - kchkrusher 8.9k points · 2 days ago Not sure if it's really placebo, but there is research done on how a car door should sound when you close it. A flat and boring "pank" sound would do just fine but a lot of people find that soft, plush and yet firm "pshrompff" sound reassures them the door is closed. Someone please do a better job here describing car doors closing because mine sucks.
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  • 21
    Text - south3rnson 7.4k points · 2 days ago Who else mashed the down and a buttons on the ds or gameboy when they were trying to catch a new pokemon.
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  • 22
    Text - CrazyCoKids 5.1k points · 2 days ago Your "Permanent Record". Colleges care more about what you say on Twitter and Facebook than what you said to Dakota in third grade. The only time your permanent record means something is if you transfer within the district.
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  • 23
    Text - ndu867 5.1k points · 2 days ago Wine prices. They've done studies that show people think wine tastes better if it costs more, but when they do a blind taste test very few people, even people who are wine drinkers (not everyone, there are some people who can tell but it's a pretty small percentage) can't distinguish between pretty cheap (-$15-20 bottle) and expensive wine.
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  • 24
    Text - Lenaturnsgreen 4.6k points · 2 days ago · edited 2 days ago Milky or opaque white „moisturising“ body wash. It's the same as the clear ones. It's not more moisturising, it just has white pigments in it. But because it's not clear people associate it with lotion and think it's better for the skin.
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  • 25
    Text - sal00 3.4k points · 2 days ago When you give your young sibling an unconnected controller after he/she kept bugging to join the game.
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  • 26
    Text - sharrrper 2.4k points · 2 days ago Bubbles in cleaning products. Early formulations of soap WAY back when used to naturally form suds. Newer formulations can clean better but don't naturally produce suds as the bubbling was an incidental side effect that doesn't actually have any bearing on cleaning. When these newer soaps were first introduced people complained they didn't work because they didn't make loads of bubbles. So the manufacturers started adding a chemical solely to generate bu
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