When a doctor tells you that you’ll feel better, this provides you with information you can use to predict how you’re actually going to fare over time, especially if she has fancy medical degrees, wears a white coat, and talks with authority. That’s not a joke. Research shows that features that you might think are peripheral—if a physician wears a lab coat or not, whether she has acronyms attached to her name placards, and even whether the pills you take are referred to as “brand-labeled” or generic—subconsciously strengthen our beliefs.
