Guilt is an uncomfortable feeling and can be burdensome. Researchers at the University of Basel have shown that placebos can help reduce feelings of guilt, even when the placebo is administered openly.

People don’t always behave impeccably in relationship to others. When we notice that this has inadvertently caused harm, we often feel guilty. This is an uncomfortable feeling and motivates us to take remedial action, such as apologizing or owning up.

This is why guilt is considered an important moral emotion, as long as it is adaptive – in other words, appropriate and in proportion to the situation. “It can improve interpersonal relationships and is therefore valuable for social cohesion,” says Dilan Sezer, researcher at the Division of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy at the University of Basel.

Whether feelings of guilt can be reduced by taking placebos is something that researchers at the Faculty of Psychology at the University of Basel have been exploring. Their findings have now been published in the journal Scientific Reports.

Read the whole article on UNI-News.

Original publication

Dilan Sezer, Cosima Locher, Jens Gaab
Deceptive and open-label placebo effects in experimentally induced guilt: a randomized controlled trial in healthy subjects
Scientific reports (2022), doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-25446-1