Sydney Placebo Lab

At the Sydney Placebo Lab, we explore how beliefs can modulate health experiences. More specifically, we are interested in the phenomena of placebo and nocebo effects.

We blend knowledge of human behaviour, associative learning, and clinical information to better understand how these phenomena occur and how they can be utilised.

Our research spans across different symptom domains including pain, nausea, and other common medication side effects.

We utilise a wide range of equipment to collect experimental data (e.g., TENS, virtual reality, EEG, CHEPS) and perform observational research to examine the occurrence of placebo and nocebo effects in the community.

Interested in learning more about our research and, or getting hands on experience?

Feel free to reach out to either Ben Colaguiri (ben.colaguiri@sydney.edu.au) or Winston Tan (winston.tan@sydney.edu.au). Please know that positions are limited but if you are keen, we’d love to hear from you.