To the researchers, this was a sign that the patients expected less from the placebo they believed cost less, so their brains responded by doing more work.
The two likeliest outcomes in that year's general election are a small Labour majority or a small Conservative majority (coalitions are never likely in Britain, despite what everybody in Westminster seems to believe, and even less so in 2015 because the Liberal Democrats will probably lose seats).
"They're predators and extremely dangerous animals in the wild, and there's no reason to believe they'd be less so in captivity," said Dr. Peter Borchelt, an animal behavioral consultant in Forest Hills, Queens.
Still others conceded the Aztecs were bloody, but believed the Maya were less so.
There's laughter and stories, and questions for me, some predictable – "What do you think of Sri Lanka?" – others less so – "Do you believe in Armageddon?" They tell stories of wartime: how the Tigers came to the railway station back in 1987 and whipped a crowd of youths into a frenzy of fighting fervour.
Little wonder that authors seize on the same sorts of phrasing so their make-believe worlds might feel less so.
If the future is too unpredictable and volatile to make strategic choices, what would lead a manager to believe that it will become significantly less so?
"Now she's showing improvement in her physical therapies, in her swimming lessons, in her interactions with her sisters — she can now look her parents in the eyes". "It's something I never believed was going to happen, and less so with a supplement.
Less so, the United manager believes, to the people he is helping out.
He believes Grampa is "great as a background character, but less so when he takes center stage".
