David Robson
Science writer, author of The Expectation Effect (2022), a popular synthesis of research on how beliefs and expectations shape experience, from placebo and nocebo to appetite and exercise.
Who they are
Robson's book is well sourced, with dense, traceable notes, and its two chapters on nocebo are the best popular treatment of the subject this site has read. It hedges carefully where a clinical procedure is obviously involved. It hedges less where the risk is less obvious: the milkshake study is given without its sample size or its null hunger result.
Key papers
Robson, D. (2022). The Expectation Effect. Canongate.
Key ideas
Expecting harm produces real symptoms. See Nocebo.
Beliefs about activity are linked to health. See Perceived Physical Activity.
Sources
- Robson, D. (2022). The Expectation Effect. Read in full by this publication, 8 October 2026, with a reliability audit.