prior probability is sure you have heard of the famous placebo effect in medicine, but have you ever heard of “placebo buttons”??? Thanks (once again) to the amazing Tyler Cowen, I found this fascinating exposé of placebo buttons on David Craney’s cool blog You are not so smart:

“In many offices and cubicle farms, the thermostat on the wall isn’t connected to anything. Landlords, engineers and HVAC specialists have installed dummy thermostats for decades to keep people from costing companies money by constantly adjusting the temperature. According to a 2003 article in the Wall Street Journal, one HVAC specialist surmised that 90 percent of all office thermostats are fake (others say it’s more like 2 percent). Some companies even install noise generators to complete the illusion after you turn the knob.”

Can you think of any other possible placebos? What about law? Are hearings and other forms of legal process a kind of “legal placebo” used to fool the losing party into believing that the outcome is just?

Hat tip: Tyler Cowen of Marginal Revolution