| Title |
The Placebo Effect in Sports Performance
|
|---|---|
| Published in |
Sports Medicine, October 2012
|
| DOI | 10.2165/00007256-200939040-00004 |
| Pubmed ID | |
| Authors |
Christopher J. Beedie, Abigail J. Foad |
| Abstract |
The placebo effect, with its central role in clinical trials, is acknowledged as a factor in sports medicine, although until recently little has been known about the likely magnitude and extent of the effect in any specific research setting. Even less is known about the prevalence of the effect in competitive sport. The present paper reviews 12 intervention studies in sports performance. All examine placebo effects associated with the administration of an inert substance believed by subjects to be an ergogenic aid. Placebo effects of varying magnitudes are reported in studies addressing sports from weightlifting to endurance cycling. Findings suggest that psychological variables such as motivation, expectancy and conditioning, and the interaction of these variables with physiological variables, might be significant factors in driving both positive and negative outcomes. Programmatic research involving the triangulation of data, and investigation of contextual and personality factors in the mediation of placebo responses may help to advance knowledge in this area. |
X Demographics
The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 23 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | 5 | 22% |
| Canada | 2 | 9% |
| Brazil | 2 | 9% |
| Chile | 1 | 4% |
| Ecuador | 1 | 4% |
| Japan | 1 | 4% |
| Hungary | 1 | 4% |
| United States | 1 | 4% |
| Spain | 1 | 4% |
| Other | 1 | 4% |
| Unknown | 7 | 30% |
Demographic breakdown
| Type | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Members of the public | 13 | 57% |
| Scientists | 7 | 30% |
| Practitioners (doctors, other healthcare professionals) | 2 | 9% |
| Science communicators (journalists, bloggers, editors) | 1 | 4% |
Mendeley readers
The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 392 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | 8 | 2% |
| Brazil | 6 | 2% |
| Poland | 2 | <1% |
| United States | 2 | <1% |
| Qatar | 1 | <1% |
| Canada | 1 | <1% |
| Spain | 1 | <1% |
| Unknown | 371 | 95% |
Demographic breakdown
| Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Student > Bachelor | 62 | 16% |
| Student > Master | 60 | 15% |
| Student > Ph. D. Student | 56 | 14% |
| Researcher | 33 | 8% |
| Student > Postgraduate | 22 | 6% |
| Other | 75 | 19% |
| Unknown | 84 | 21% |
| Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Sports and Recreations | 143 | 36% |
| Psychology | 39 | 10% |
| Medicine and Dentistry | 37 | 9% |
| Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 22 | 6% |
| Nursing and Health Professions | 17 | 4% |
| Other | 38 | 10% |
| Unknown | 96 | 24% |
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 219. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 29 December 2023.
All research outputs
#177,833
of 25,593,129 outputs
Outputs from Sports Medicine
#170
of 2,889 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#863
of 193,043 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Sports Medicine
#17
of 832 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,593,129 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 99th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 2,889 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 57.1. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 94% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 193,043 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 832 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 98% of its contemporaries.