Background
This article presents the first comprehensive evidence around public acceptability of clinical placebo use as a behavioural strategy to reduce overtreatment in “primary care”, defined by the World Health Organisation as “a model of care that supports first-contact, accessible, continuous, comprehensive and coordinated person-focused care” [While reasons for medicine overuse vary, key factors include diagnostic uncertainty and defensive medicine, aimed to reduce chances of patient litigation [A theory-based, behavioural solution to action bias is substitution [