Caff vs Decaff Coffee - A lesson in the Placebo effect

 

This is a true story about a non scientific example of the reality of the placebo effect.

 

Joe was not one of the more popular people in the department. Loud, opinionated, and more than a touch arrogant, he had an air about him that rubbed some of his fellow employees the wrong way.  

 

Joe announced one day that from henceforth whenever he made the coffee it would be decaffeinated. . His reasoning was that caffeinated coffee was causing him indigestion (a new one on me) and so he could no longer drink it. This did not go over well because he usually was the first person in the office each day

 

For the coffee drinkers in the department, the unwritten rule to that point had been leaded coffee for a boost in the morning and unleaded in the afternoon to promote sleep at night.  But Joe, who prided himself on getting in earlier than anyone else made it clear that when he made the first pot it in the morning it would now be decaffeinated.

 

Deanne didn’t take too kindly to Joe’s rather pompous announcement so she devised a simple yet devious solution. She poured the caffeinated coffee into the decaffeinated container and vise versa. She alerted all of the other coffee drinkers but Joe about the ruse.

 

Joe relished in his new role as the coffee steward and he took pleasure in reminding everyone else that it was decaff because he got in first. He didn’t appear to notice that the other coffee drinkers didn’t mind drinking decaff and that the level of consumption remained constant.  Assuming it was decaff, he drank the fully caffeinated brew each day without any apparent ill effects.

 

A day came where Joe was late and missed his chance to make the coffee.  He assumed that whoever made it that day had made caffeinated, but he warily got a cup full anyways. Later he approached a group of people including Deanne who were taking a break. Cup in hand and with a sour look on his face he proclaimed, “As soon as I started drinking this I knew it was caffeinated, I can already feel the indigestion starting in my chest.” He grimaced and walked away while the rest of the group struggled to hold in their laughter.  

 

Joe had been an unwitting participant in an unplanned experiment. He had been drinking caffeinated coffee all along, but his perception of whether it was caffeinated or decaffeinated controlled his symptoms.  I told Deanne she needed to get into psychology, she already had a dissertation.

 

Makes one wonder how much of what ails and/or cures us is in the mind.

 

Thanks