Acceptance
pain, anxiety, OLP
The IP intervention found wide acceptance among participants and various reasons were expressed why this treatment felt right for them. The imagined pill intake was described as easy and effortless, taking only a few minutes. It was viewed as a new and interesting idea, practical and flexible in its use. Also, participants expressed that the IP intervention was helpful and efficacious, and one participant preferred the IP over OLP due to reluctance to take real pills. The level of approval with the assigned intervention was also high among OLP participants. Example responses include:” […] actually, I was amazed that you can have such an impact in this short amount of time.” (IP; Subject 14)“No, so for me [taking a physical pill] would have been bad. […] So, I liked it much more [than OLP] since it was imaginary.” (IP; Subject 17)“I kind of always looked forward to it, it was always like: ‘Uh, you still have to take your placebos.’” (OLP; Subject 1)The pills (imaginary and physical) were associated multiple times with a drug or a symbol for healing or health improvement. It was emphasized that people are socialized with pills in their culture as a mean to get better and one participant reflected on the common familiarity with them:“[…] yes, the [imaginary] pill strongly resembles a drug, and I would say that most of the people have already taken a drug in their lives. So, it’s a good choice, a good method.” (IP; Subject 15)Many approached the IP intervention with an open attitude. Participants showed a mixture between curiosity and excitement about the previously unknown approach. Some employed a mindset of ‘let’s give it a try’, as there were no costs or harmful side effects involved.Contrary to IP, half of OLP interviewees had pre-existing familiarity with (open-label) placebos. Regardless of prior unfamiliarity, however, there was an openness and curiosity about the intervention:“I have heard about placebo before–the placebo effect–and that studies are done about it. But I didn’t know that you can also do that with open placebos, that you can disclose that. I had never heard of that before. I actually found that exciting, that it is being tried out like that.” (OLP; Subject 9)Approval towards the IP intervention was also apparent as the majority of participants showed openness to reapplying the intervention for the next exam phase in the same or a slightly altered way. Moreover, nearly all interviewees reported that they could imagine an extension of the IP intervention beyond test anxiety. Especially regulation of other emotions (insecurity, sorrow) as well as pain were regularly mentioned to be possible areas of application. Most participants would furthermore recommend the intervention to others, however, only to people that show open-mindedness:“To certain people in my environment, I would definitely recommend it, yes, others, definitively not, because, well, I think that it is something that you really have to make up your mind to do it and believe in it.” (IP; Subject 16)These results are consistent with those of the OLP group, in which open-mindedness was also considered a prerequisite for the application of an OLP intervention.