The Nocebo Effect – The Side Effects of Negative Thinking  (3 Min Read) | Vol. 153

May 30, 2025

“We suffer more in imagination than in reality.” – Seneca

The Nocebo Effect – The Side Effects of Negative Thinking 

I remember taking Gus to get his first round of shots at eight weeks. He was just starting to smile. Anxious, sleep-deprived parents always remember those first smiles–the first rewards of parenting. A vote of approval from the tiny being you’re clumsily caring for. Gus was grinning up at me, cooing and slobbering like a drunk pirate on shore leave when the nurse cheerfully announced, “Coming in hot.”
Cue the inconsolable wailing. 

Cue the look of betrayal. 

Cue my haunting flashback for years to come.
And I was absolutely sure he said his first words, “Et tu, Brute?” 

Some people have a fear of shots. Not me. I feared taking my kids to get shots. 

Our imagination is a crazy thing. We can harness it to cast a vision that pulls us onward long after everyone else has quit the race. Other times, it runs wild and conjures challenges that seem so insurmountable we can’t take the first step. I want to say that reality isn’t what you think. 

Actually, it’s exactly what you think. 

You’ve likely heard of the “Placebo Effect.” Dr. Henry Beecher, a World War II physician, faced the difficult decision of rationing limited supplies of painkillers in wartime. Some of the wounded got morphine. Some got saline. Many of the latter reported significant reductions in pain. After the war, he published papers on the “placebo response.” The Placebo Effect is when patients have a positive response to fake medicine. 

If you believe in the cure, you feel relief. 

Not as many know about the Nocebo Effect. Back in the 1700s, King Louis XVI was skeptical of “healing magnetism” and commissioned Benjamin Franklin and others to investigate. The researchers told a control group they were being magnetized — but they weren’t. Still, many reported serious side effects… to absolutely nothing.

The conclusion? The side effects came from the expectation of side effects.

A few centuries later, in 1961, Dr. Walter Kennedy gave this phenomenon a name: Nocebo — Latin for “I shall harm.” The Placebo Effect’s evil sibling. 

This is the part where most writers would insert Henry Ford’s “whether you think you can or you can’t” quote. But I’ll go with something fresher from this week’s podcast guest, author Jenny Woods: “Oftentimes, what stands in our way of going after what we want is not money or luck or skill or talent or connections. It’s your fear, right?” Yes. It’s fear, or more specifically, the stories we tell ourselves. 

When we imagine the worst, we rarely get the best life has to offer. Many of our biggest fears aren’t rooted in reality. They’re rooted in how we imagine we’ll fail and how that might validate our perceived shortcomings. The stories we tell ourselves matter. 

One question to ponder in your thinking time: Where might my beliefs be doing more harm than reality ever could?

Make an Impact!
Jay Papasan
Co-author of The ONE Thing & The Millionaire Real Estate Agent