The Placebo Effect In Sports

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The “placebo effect” is defined as an effect of beliefs rather than a drug. In research athletes have been made to believe that they received anabolic steroids, carbohydrates, or caffeine and they performed better than baseline or control groups. The focus in placebo research in sport is one the role of beliefs as a psychological factor in performance. Sport psychologists have argued that many technologies, products, or substances that seem to have an effect on athletes performance have no clear biological basis but may simply be the result of the placebo effect.

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