--- title: Five Best: Knowing You’re Taking A Placebo Can Help description: Knowing you're taking a placebo can help, mentor people who aren’t like you and more. canonical: https://time.com/4746229/knowing-youre-taking-a-placebo-can-help/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-04-19T16:00:01.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:58:55.436Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Knowing You’re Taking A Placebo Can Help og:description: And four more of today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/4746229/knowing-youre-taking-a-placebo-can-help/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Knowing You’re Taking A Placebo Can Help twitter:description: And four more of today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Knowing You’re Taking A Placebo Can Help by [The Aspen Institute](/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Apr 19, 2017 4:00 PM CUT by [The Aspen Institute](/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Apr 19, 2017 4:00 PM CUT **1\.** [**Even if you know you’re taking a placebo, it could help.**](http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/why-i-take-fake-pills-180962765/ "undefined") By Robert Anthony Siegel in _Smithsonian_ **2\.** [**Mentor people who aren’t like you.**](https://hbr.org/2017/04/mentor-people-who-arent-like-you "undefined") By Richard Farnell in the _Harvard Business Review_ **3\.** [**America needs a national metropolitan political party.**](https://www.citylab.com/politics/2017/04/america-needs-a-metropolitan-party/523065/ "undefined") By Bruce Katz in _CityLab_ **4\.** [**Can weed cure America’s opioid epidemic?**](https://motherboard.vice.com/en%5Fus/article/can-weed-cure-americas-opioid-epidemic "undefined") By Kaleigh Rogers in _Motherboard_ **5\.** [**How an Uber-like ambulance taxi service is saving lives of pregnant women in Tanzania.**](http://mashable.com/2017/04/15/vodafone-maternal-health-uber-ambulance/?curator=TechREDEF#LNff03EKWEqr "undefined") By Matt Petronzio in _Mashable_  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/ "undefined") _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4746229/knowing-youre-taking-a-placebo-can-help/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4746229/knowing-youre-taking-a-placebo-can-help/"},"headline":"Knowing You’re Taking A Placebo Can Help","datePublished":"2017-04-19T16:00:01.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:58:55.436Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/4746229/knowing-youre-taking-a-placebo-can-help/","keywords":["Five Best Ideas","Innovation","Pregnancy","politics","medication","opioid epidemic"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/five-best-ideas/","name":"Five Best Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4746229/knowing-youre-taking-a-placebo-can-help/","name":"Knowing You’re Taking A Placebo Can Help"}}]}] ```