ArticleEvolutionary psychology : an international journal of evolutionary approaches to psychology and behavior2015
The Signaling Theory of Symptoms : An Evolutionary Explanation of the Placebo Effect.
Article in Evolutionary psychology : an international journal of evolutionary approaches to psychology and behavior, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
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Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 45 citations in OpenAlex.
- Molecular classification of the placebo effect in nausea.PloS one · 2020Trial
- Alliance A221805: Duloxetine to Prevent Oxaliplatin-Induced Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Phase II Study.JCO oncology advances · 2026Article
- Association of potential morally injurious events, moral injury and somatic symptoms of health in UK military veterans: a cross-sectional study.BMC psychology · 2025Article
- From infected to recovered: the mediating role of sleep quality between self-compassion, social support and COVID-19 psychosomatic symptoms.BMC public health · 2024Article
- Brain-to-brain mechanisms underlying pain empathy and social modulation of pain in the patient-clinician interaction.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- Pain: Behavioural expression and response in an evolutionary framework.Evolution, medicine, and public health · 2023Article
- How reported outbreak data can shape individual behavior in a social world.Journal of public health policy · 2022Article
- The evolution of the human healthcare system and implications for understanding our responses to COVID-19.Evolution, medicine, and public health · 2022Review
- Placebo, nocebo: Believing in the field of medicine.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Healing in a Social Context: The Importance of Clinician and Patient Relationship.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2021Review
- Dynamic brain-to-brain concordance and behavioral mirroring as a mechanism of the patient-clinician interaction.Science advances · 2020Article
- Emerging infectious disease and the challenges of social distancing in human and non-human animals.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2020Review
- A reformulated contextual model of psychotherapy for treating anxiety and depression.Clinical psychology review · 2020Review
- The Contribution of Sociocultural Factors in Shaping Self-Reported Sickness Behavior.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2020Article
- Why Care: Complex Evolutionary History of Human Healthcare Networks.Frontiers in psychology · 2020Review
- Persistence of pain in humans and other mammals.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2019Review
- Aversive medical treatments signal a need for support: a mathematical model.Evolutionary human sciences · 2019Article
- Processing of Emotion in Functional Neurological Disorder.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2018Review
- An enactive account of placebo effects.Biology & philosophy · 2017Article
- Adaptive and non-adaptive models of depression: A comparison using register data on antidepressant medication during divorce.PloS one · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Placebo research shows that the subjective quality of care and social support, as well as the patients' expectations of treatment, influence therapeutic outcomes. However, this phenomenon, known as the placebo effect, does not usually cure the disease, but rather can provide symptomatic relief: It may soothe symptoms such as pain, swelling, or nausea that constitute part of an immune response. The function of this mechanism remains unclear. This article puts forward the Signaling Theory of Symptoms (STS) as a possible explanation. According to STS, discernible aspects of an immune response, such as pain, swelling, or nausea, not only serve a defensive and healing function but also a signaling function: symptoms signal the need for care and treatment to potential helpers. Once help and treatment are granted, the signaling function is fulfilled and the symptoms diminish. This mechanism may have been a significant advantage in preindustrial environments, when sufferers depended on extensive social support and personal treatment. Nowadays, from the point of view of modern materialist medicine, the mobilization of social support no longer seems so crucial, and thus the placebo effect has been assigned a somewhat mysterious quality.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.