Abstract
Studies reveal that haptic input (touching lightly on a surface) can improve a person's balance (Afzal et al., 2015). However, it has been argued that it is impossible to separate the effects of psychological and social forces from the effect of a treatment itself (Crum et al., 2017). We examined whether a person's mindset could be altered through descriptive norms to create a placebo effect that would enhance the effect of haptic input on balance. Drawing on the placebo literature (Carvalho et al., 2016), we examined whether providing individuals with a normative message about the positive effects of haptic input would improve balance over the effects associated with haptics alone. Adult participants were randomly assigned to either a control (n = 36) or message condition (n = 33). Participants performed two quiet tandem-stance balance tests on a portable force plate separated by a 60-second rest period. On the first trial, all participants balanced without touch and on the second with touch. Prior to the second trial, those in the message condition were told that many others improved their balance with touch while the control group received no message. The DV was the mean total path traveled by the centre of pressure (COP). Controlling for the COP (first trial), ANCOVA results revealed COP on trial two differed significantly by condition (p = .004). Those receiving the message exhibited better balance. These results suggest that creating a placebo effect about the positive effects of haptic input may help improve balance.
