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If someone has non-alcoholic drinks they think are alcoholic and then they proceed to get "wasted" and make an ass out of themselves, is that a legit placebo effect happening? (lemmy.world)

submitted 6 days ago by cheese_greater@lemmy.world to c/nostupidquestions@lemmy.ca

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Read variations on this story a few times and it usually involves there being a mixup or whatever and someone "drinks" to "excess" but its not actually spiked or alcohol or anything psychotropic and they end up making an ass out of themselves and everybody else knew they didnt actually drink.

Are they faking or did they experience an honest placebo experience or something else crazy?

Something something cultural expectations

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[–] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 9 points 6 days ago

It can be either.

It is possible to experience inebriation without intoxication via placebo effect. I've used that a few times to help people get to sleep or reduce pain perception, and fairly universally they'll also say they feel high.

But, people will also fake it out of perceived social onus. If everyone is acting drunk, a good proportion of people will do so even if drinking water and knowing they aren't drunk. When they think they're supposed to be, and don't feel it, the urge to behave as part of the group can kick in, and they'll act like what they think they're supposed to.

Myself, I would do that back as a teenager. Had no desire to get drunk, but didn't want to bring a party down. So I'd carry the same drink all night, sipping on it and act tipsy enough that everyone was happy.

That changed after I got drunk the first of two and a half or three times. After that I'd just smile and say I was good instead of faking anything.

So it's difficult to tell the difference from the outside. A lot of the perception of being drunk/high depends on familiarity with what the person thinks they're consuming. Someone that drinks plenty is likely to experience something closer to actually being drunk than someone with no experience. So to the outside observer, an inexperienced person and someone faking might well be indistinguishable