If you look at behaviours to hack the unconscious, they all seem to have an element that is wasteful, unpleasant or downright silly. Cosmetics are insanely overpriced and time-consuming to apply. Alcohol, when you think about it, doesn’t really taste very nice: on a really hot day when you are parched, which would you honestly prefer – a glass of Château d’Yquem or a raspberry Slush Puppie? Placebo treatments like homeopathy involve a large amount of ritual and nonsense. Medicine tastes horrid. At some point, we have to ask a vital question: do these various things work despite the fact that
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