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This video is adapted from 10.3390/nu16131975
Sports and exercise performance could be affected by both placebo and nocebo effects. The last literature review on placebo and nocebo effects on sports performance was published in 2019. Several new studies have been conducted and published in the past five years. This review aimed to update the previous synthesis and evaluate the results of new studies emphasizing placebo or nocebo interventions in sports and exercise by determining the form and magnitude of their effect. Therefore, the current review included empirical studies published from 2019 until the end of May 2024, indexed in PubMed, MEDLINE, Web of Science, EBSCO, and Google Scholar databases. The search yielded 20 eligible studies with control or baseline-control conditions, focusing on nutritional, mechanical, and other mixed ergogenic aids. They revealed small to large placebo effects (Cohen’s d) for nutritional (d = 0.86), mechanical (d = 0.38), cream and gel (d = 0.05), and open-label placebo (d = 0.16) interventions. The pooled effect size for placebo effects was moderate to large (d = 0.67), larger than in the earlier review, indicating that placebo effects can enhance motor performance even more than previously reported. However, based on five measures from three studies, the nocebo effects were almost twice as large (d = 1.20). Current findings support and expand upon the previous review by providing additional evidence for placebo and nocebo effects on sports and exercise performance.