Scientific Programme
Applied Sports Sciences
IS-AP06 - Placebo effects in sport: problems, pathways and practical applications
Date: 10.07.2026, Time: 09:30 - 10:45, Session Room: Auditorium A (STCC)
Description
Placebo effects are a desirable outcome resulting from a person’s expected and/or learned response to an intervention (e.g., altitude, dietary supplements, imagery). Over two decades of evidence highlights the significant influence placebo effects can have across several sport performance outcomes, including endurance, speed and strength. However, placebo effects are often misunderstood, which can lead to for example, flawed study designs, misattribution of mechanisms and difficulties in translating to applied practice. As such, there can often be confusion related to 1) measuring and controlling for placebo effects in research, 2) underpinning neural correlates modulating placebo effects, and 3) translating placebo effect research to applied practice. In this symposium, the three speakers will address these issues. The first talk will provide a critical insight into the measurement of placebo effects in sport science and what should be considered to ensure more accurate inferences of sport science interventions. Second, an explanation of the underpinning neural correlates will be given, whereby both subcortical and cortical brain regions that are activated during placebo effects modulating sport performance will be discussed. Finally, an in-depth examination about the ethical and practical application of placebo effect research will be given that illustrates how knowledge can be harnessed to benefit applied practice and in turn, an athlete’s performance.
Chair(s)
Philip Hurst
Canterbury Christ Church University, Sport and Exercise Science
United Kingdom
Speaker A
Felipe Marticorena
University of Sao Paulo, Applied Physiology and Nutrition Research Grou
Brazil
Read CVECSS Lausanne 2026: IS-AP06 [41442]
How do I conduct placebo effect research in sport science?
Placebo effects are often regarded as a nuisance to be controlled for when establishing the efficacy of an intervention. To achieve this, the double-blind, placebo controlled randomised trial (RCT) is often accepted as a method in which to provide objective, unbiased estimates of the effectiveness of an intervention that are the result of the intervention itself rather than placebo effects. Importantly, by using the RCT, researchers gain confidence that any systematic error is minimised by the rigorous application of the design whereby participants are randomised to the intervention in question or a placebo and via blinding to both participants and researchers. However, for placebo effect researchers, the RCT is limited in that beliefs about what intervention received is held constant by blinding, which will likely fail for many sport science interventions (e.g., exercise, altitude, caffeine) given their nature (e.g., a participant will know that they are exercising) and symptoms likely to be experienced (e.g., increase in heart rate and alertness). As such, for researchers aiming to examine placebo effects and determine their influence on the efficacy for many sport science interventions, the RCT is arguably inadequate. To provide more accurate inferences about the magnitude and mechanisms of placebo effects and given current criticism within sport science related to methodological robustness across research studies, a need exists to ensure that researchers are conducting rigorous, valid and well-controlled studies. In this talk, the speaker will help address this and discuss 1) the limitations of RCTs when examining placebo effects, 2) the influence beliefs can have on the outcome of a number of sport science interventions and 3) methods that researchers can adopt to allow a greater understanding of placebo effects in sport science. Methodological alternatives, such as the balanced placebo design, as well as practical recommendations for measuring and controlling expectations, will be presented, which will be accompanied by an in-depth discussion of the statistical, practical, and ethical limitations. By integrating evidence from the literature with methodological implications, the speaker will provide robust methodologies that can distinguish the verum effects of an intervention from placebo effects, thereby strengthening the validity and applicability of results to the real world.
Speaker B
Mirta Fiorio
Univeristy of Verona, Neuroscience, biomedicine and movement science
Italy
Read CVECSS Lausanne 2026: IS-AP06 [41443]
What happens in my brain when I experience a placebo effect?
Placebo effects can often be caused by external processes such as information (expectations) and prior learning (e.g., conditioning). As a result, there are many neurobiological responses to these external processes, which can be directly assessed with neuroimaging and neurophysiological techniques, such as electroencephalogram (EEG) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Importantly, this research highlights that there is not just one placebo effect but many that operate across various areas of the brain. Over a decade of evidence has accumulated showing that various subcortical (e.g., ventral striatum) and cortical (e.g., motor cortex) brain regions are associated with placebo effects. In short, it is now clear that when an athlete receives a placebo and believes it will benefit their performance, significant changes in that athlete’s brain chemistry and circuitry are found. In this talk, the speaker will build on the first speaker’s presentation by providing a brief overview of methods used for examining the neural correlates of placebo effects across several outcomes related to sport performance (e.g., force, speed and motor learning), before critically examining the underpinning mechanisms that modulate placebo effects. The focus will be on the motor cortex, and how expectations and rewards can directly modulate placebo effects, which in turn produce changes in outcomes, such as fatigue resistance, force production and precision control. The implications of this body of research will be discussed in light of how these can be applied to both researchers and practitioners, including 1) how placebo effects can change the chemistry and circuity of an athlete’s brain, which can be directly measured using neurophysiological techniques (e.g., TMS and EEG), and 2) that these changes can directly affect physiology, psychology and performance, whereby the likelihood of an athlete achieving success is increased. In sum, this talk will highlight how placebo effects can produce real changes in the brain, that in turn are likely to directly affect sport performance, which can have direct implications for how researchers and practitioners work with their athletes.
Speaker C
Philip Hurst
Canterbury Christ Church University, Sport and Exercise Science
United Kingdom
Read CVECSS Lausanne 2026: IS-AP06 [27627]
How can I use placebo effects to benefit an athlete’s performance?
The previous two talks highlight that placebo effects can be directly studied and have several mechanisms that in turn, can significantly affect several sport performance outcomes. However, many placebo effect studies use deception to elicit placebo effects, which limits translating findings to applied practitioners (e.g., coaches, psychologists and physiotherapists). That is, during a research study, a participant will typically be presented with a placebo and informed it is a performance enhancing intervention. Although benevolent, such an approach in the real world would violate athlete autonomy and consent and could result in breaking trust between athlete and practitioner. Direct translation of placebo effect research to applied practice is therefore not straightforward. To bridge the gap between research and practice, in this talk the speaker will critically analyse how placebo effect research can benefit applied practice threefold. First, placebos do not induce placebo effects. Instead, a main pathway for inducing placebo effects is the context surrounding the administration of the placebo. Thus, a practitioner’s words, facial expressions, and the environment in which the placebo is administered can significantly affect an athlete’s physiology, psychology and performance. Second, placebo effects are inherent in all sport science interventions. Once a treatment has shown to be efficacious and safe, applied practitioners should aim to augment placebo effects during the administration of their treatment and harness this effect to ensure the greatest benefits in performance are shown. Third, expectations and prior learning are essential to placebo effects. When an athlete expects a placebo to benefit performance, or has a positive prior experience, these are likely to in turn, manifest a change in performance. Thus, applied practitioners, need to ensure that when administrating an intervention to their athlete, it is vital that they fully expect the intervention to be beneficial.