Placebos, back belts, and Hawthorne effect

The use of soft back belts in industry and retailing to help prevent and thus control the costs of back injuries has accelerated over the past three years. The purpose of this paper is to suggest that the claimed positive results from using back belts, if any, can be explained by factors other than the physical effects of the belt. It is suggested that the placebo effect and/or the Hawthorne effect are a more likely explanation for the claimed positive results than any physical benefits of belt use