xnor
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- May 28, 2009
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What makes you think so?
What makes you think so?
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What makes you think so?
Placebos are an inert substance administered to a patient who is suffering from a medical condition of some sort. The patient believes that they are receiving a medically potent treatment and report a reduction of symptoms. Key in the placebo's effect is that it's portrayed as medically potent substance or treatment. There is plenty of research on placebos, but it's all (as far as I've seen) inside the area of medical treatment and research. The reason I think it's troublesome for audio is that using the term synonymously for the biases of audio perception falsely creates an aura of "science" that is borrowed from another domaine.
One argument for sighted tests would be that the equipment under investigation is encountered in a more "natural way" the way. Equipment would be used in a situation than was more "normal" versus a situation where the identity of the item is hidden, where some trickery is employed, or where the situation of encountering it was significantly altered.
Placebos are an inert substance administered to a patient who is suffering from a medical condition of some sort. The patient believes that they are receiving a medically potent treatment and report a reduction of symptoms. Key in the placebo's effect is that it's portrayed as medically potent substance or treatment. There is plenty of research on placebos, but it's all (as far as I've seen) inside the area of medical treatment and research. The reason I think it's troublesome for audio is that using the term synonymously for the biases of audio perception falsely creates an aura of "science" that is borrowed from another domaine.
I guess we could come up with a lot of terms that are applicable, like gullibility, ignorance, expectation bias, bandwagon effect ....
How about simply "being human"?
Friend of mine once spent a couple hours tweaking the EQ on a mastering project before he finally realized the EQ he was tweaking wasn't patched in. Was he gullible? Was he ignorant? Suffering form bandwagon effect? Or was he simply being human?
It's just how our brains are wired and we have no control over that. So I don't like to see such denigrating terms used to describe the underlying phenomenon.
I do not see how any of the terms mentioned apply to him in that case. I guess he was just stupid.
How about simply "being human"?
Friend of mine once spent a couple hours tweaking the EQ on a mastering project before he finally realized the EQ he was tweaking wasn't patched in. Was he gullible? Was he ignorant? Suffering form bandwagon effect? Or was he simply being human?
This is an argument, yes, but it is a pathetically weak one.
When we encounter something it always exists inside of a context, a relationship between objects, ideas, history, culture, and biology.
Your friend while listening to your headphones did so inside of a particular context; Your friendship, the interaction, the feel of the materials,
the location, and a pile of worldly influences all helped to form a particular experience for your friend. His ignorance of the brand didn't remove
him from being inside a context. We simply don't have the ability to extract our phenomenological experience from a particular context or perspective
and have a pure objective experience. Blind test and double blind tests exist because of this.
An Illustration: A vs B. What looks darker?