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Many alternative medicine treatments have great success even though they lack documentation and the price is high
So how difficult can it be to succeed with an alternative treatment?
And how does money affect the experience of it?
Camilla (Actor), do you have any experience as a practitioner?
No, I don't
Ok, but you've received a white coat?
Yes, I have
Great, I've prepared an alternative treatment and some patients, so now you're set to go
Half of the patients coming, does it voluntarily to test out a new alternative treatment
While the other half receives money from us for participating
It will be exciting to see who's most satisfied afterwards
We have invited 6 people who have ailments in their back or neck
We check for pain, stiffness and stress before the treatment
So we can see if there has been any improvements afterward
I have developed the treatment all by myself
It took me half an hour or so
What you need is: loff, and tea. Green tea, of course.
Voila, a piece of alternative treatment
We now have a new mix that has come from Chinese medicine, actually
from the grass plant triticum (wheat)
Which has been fermented and later heated up to enhance the properties of this grass plant
So now I'll just apply this here in the areas where you are stiff
and then you can lie with this on for about 15 minutes
After 15 minutes we take off the treatment and ask what they think now
There was a temperatur change that happened because the cream was very hot
And I felt it began to alleviate and that it was working on the body
So I became more relaxed
I've only tried, like, frienly massage, and I must say she really knows what she's doing in comparison
So the proficiency was very important, I understand why people would pay for it
Before I came here I had pains in my neck, I was stiff. This cream worked, actually, I have become less stiff.
I think this treatment was incredibly good, it was really relaxing
I would recommend this treatment to both friends and family
I think that ordinary treatment from a physiotherapists is much better
than what I experienced now
They work more with the body. I would not pay for this treatment, at all
This is the discomfort the patients had when they came
The group who was paid to come reported visible improvements after being treated with some wet loff
But what about those that came voluntarily?
For them, the treatment was much more effective. Both stress, stiffness and pain was significantly reduced
Now I can recommend this to my friends, because now I've actually tried it, and, it's recommended
Jan Ole is a psychologist
He knows a lot about human behaviour and why our brains sometimes makes irrational decisions
Ok, Jan Ole, what do you think about this?
The first thing that comes to my mind is that your treatment is fantastic
It's probably a good business idea, you get low costs and very satisfied customers
It indicates that it's not hard to invent an alternative treatment that succeeds, but why do you think this works so well?
Well this is just as expected, a placebo effect that happens for all treatments
I'm a little interested in the difference between the two groups, because those that were paid were relatively pleased about it
But those that received this for free were much more happy about it
That is a result of the funniest psychological phenomenon I'm aware of, it is called cognitive dissonance
It's that our brain automatically tries to justify our actions
or in this case, the time that the participants have invested
Those who received money, they have already recieved a return for their investment
But those that did it for free had to somehow justify that for themselves, and decides that the treatment worked
Ok, but does this apply to only certain treatments?
No, this applies to all situations and it happens all the time
For example, if you buy a car, it becomes important for you to justify why you've spent so much money on that car
It is important to remember though, that our little experiment says nothing about whether alternative treatment works or not
But it shows that an alternative treatment can be both polular and sell well without having any effect