Lawsuits, Warnings and Nocebo Effect

We know that America is a very litigious society: people sue for the most idiotic of reasons. And win! Remember that night club shooting in Florida recently? Guess who some of the victims are suing? Google, Twitter and Facebook. On what grounds, you wonder:
“The lawsuit is the latest to target popular Internet services for making it too easy for the Islamic State to spread its message.”
Wow! Who’s next by this logic: telephone line companies and mobile manufacturers?

No wonder we find so many warnings and disclaimers on pretty much any product we buy: it’s all rooted in idiotic lawsuits like the one mentioned above.

Ironically, those very warnings in products could then trigger the nocebo effect. What’s that? It’s the opposite of the famous placebo effect (a beneficial effect produced not by the medicine or treatment, but due to the patient's belief in that treatment!). From Shelley Adler’s book, Sleep Paralysis:
“(Doctors) have found that pretending to expose people who say they are sensitive to electromagnetic radiation to cell phone signals can give them debilitating headaches… Logically speaking, if the evidence shows the upside of belief, why wouldn’t we believe in the downside, too?”

Think about that for a minute. To avoid getting sued, companies put more and more warnings about possible side-effects. And those very warnings might then activate the nocebo effect in people who’d have been perfectly fine but for the warning!

As Obelix once said, “These humans are crazy.”

Comments

  1. Ramiah KumarDecember 28, 2016 at 4:26 PM

    Sure, these humans are crazy!

    I recall one lawsuit about coffee served being so hot that it burned the tongue - damages to the extent of some thousands of dollars was won too! The joint subsequently placed warnings to this effect, "WARNING: This coffee, when served, may be enough hot to burn your tongue!"

    If that is the way things could work in India, everyday "suffered damage" people will be making their wholesome livelihood through just lawsuit victories! Here some things may not work alright sometimes but lawsuits take so much time and effort that it is not worth it in general. But America is different. So we find other methods to fit into the maxim, "These humans are crazy!"

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