placebo

A placebo is an inactive treatment or medicine that doctors give to patients as if it's real. You might think it sounds strange, but this type of test is actually quite common.

When researchers want to know if a new medication really works, they'll sometimes give half the participants what they think is the actual cure – and the other half get a placebo instead. This helps doctors understand whether the effect they're seeing comes from the real treatment or just because people believe it's going to work. For instance, a study might be testing a new pain reliever. The group that gets the fake pills won't know what's in them, but their reactions will still be closely monitored to see if the treatment seems to help. By comparing these two groups, doctors can figure out whether the actual medicine is making things better or if people just feel that way because they think it should work.