CU Psychology and Neuroscience graduate student Scott Schafer (Cognitive) and mentor Professor Tor Wager (Cognitive) were in the news for their recent publication regarding some of the parameters governing the placebo effect. Their research, published in the Journal of Pain, showed that a placebo effect still held, even when participants were told it was a placebo, but this was true only if the participants had been condition over 4 sessions to believe the placebo effect worked. If they were told after only one session they had been given placebo pain relief, the effect went away. Read the CU press release about the research, or read the original article.