What is it about the patently ridiculous that has some people panting in anticipation and creaming their jeans over the possibility that some random assortment of sciency-sounding words might actually work miracles for them? Why are people so eager to circumvent actual scientific understanding for the mad ramblings of some marketing department bent on bullroaring bullshit to bamboozle you out of a buck (or sixty)?
I mean, seriously, if I told you that a hologram mounted in a piece of rubber worn on or near the skin would increase your balance and strength severalfold by harmonising with your body's natural frequencies, and that I could furnish you with just such a device for a mere $60, you would be right to punch me in the face, kick me several times while I'm down and then walk away shaking your head.
But this is exactly what a series of companies are currently doing, taking the gullible for a ride and earning themselves huge sums of ill-gotten cash in the process. The Power Balance Band (as well as the Eken Power Band and others of a similar ilk) is being sold for anything up to $90 (for a Power Balance pendant) with the promise of improvements to strength and balance.
Power Balance, from their website at http://www.powerbalance.com/ (I have had to use the US version of the site as the Australian one has changed, as explained below), claim:
Power Balance is based on the idea of optimizing the body’s natural energy flow, similar to concepts behind many Eastern philosophies. The hologram in Power Balance is designed to resonate with and respond to the natural energy field of the body.
Ooooh! Tantalisingly vague.
EKEN, on their website at http://www.ekenpowerbands.com.au/specials/ claim:
nFIT (nano Frequency Infusion Technology) is our proprietary system for programming the EKEN holograms. This method ensures that each hologram receives a highly concentrated dose of the frequencies required to produce the highest potency and longest lasting product on the market.
Wow!!! That's amazing. Of course, given that they do nothing, it's not hard to claim that they have the "most potent" product on the market.
So, firstly, a hologram is little more than a photograph. Sure, a very sophisticated process must be undertaken to make these photographs appear three dimensional, but the result does not resonate at a particular frequency (or, at least, any more or less than an apple, a wedding ring or a Choice Shonky Award), and certainly not at the "natural frequency" of the human body, whatever that means.
So the nFIT, and any similar systems used by any other similar company, is, to be frank, absolute bollox.
Further, these bands are manufactured in Chinese factories and distributed, after customisation, to customers around the world, at the price of around $2 per band. If you really want to get your hands on a similar product, I would recommend the Skepticbros' Placebo Band. It uses exactly the same technology as a Power Balance or EKEN Band, at the price of $2 plus postage! Get your's from here: http://skepticbros.com/store/
But there is some science behind these products. There are, indeed, three effects working to elicit the apparently amazing effects that wearers report from these bands: the placebo effect, confirmation bias and applied kinesiology.
The placebo effect is a well known phenomenon whereby the use of an inert substance or object with no actual effect induces an improvement in whatever symptom it is being used to treat based entirely on the subject's belief in its efficacy. The placebo effect is a fascinating phenomenon to study. For example, if you are given the choice of a red sugar pill or a blue sugar pill to cure depression, the red one is likely to be more effective. Likewise, in a choice between a generically packaged or professionally branded packaging, the branded pill will generally do better. In many cases it appears as if the ceremony surrounding the placebo is as effective as the placebo, or is the actual contributing factore, in creating an effect.
But placebo is often a very minor effect and has very little actual therapeutic benefit beyond combatting percieved intensity of relatively minor symptoms. Basically, it makes you feel better but not much more.
The second effect, confirmation bias, is extremely common. Basically it is where you selectively remember things that confirm a bias while also forgetting the myriad of other ocassions that disprove the bias. This is like when you wake up one day having dreamed of someone and they call you that day, and you attribute this to some form of latent psychic powers you might have. You have remembered this one ocassion where the two events happened to align, but you forget that you may have dreamed of that person many times in the past weeks or months without a corresponding phone call, or have received a phone call from them with no accompanying dream.
The same thing is happening with sportspeople or others who are giving testimonials for these bands. When they are wearing the band they attribute their good results to it, conveniently ignoring the bad results they may also have had, or the good results they had previously without the band. We all do this. Confirmation bias is an extremely common and extremely potent effect and it takes a lot of conscious suppression to overcome the perception of amazing coincidence that it can engender. But it is real and we need to be aware of it.
Finally, applied kinesiology is something that is generally used in selling these products. The sales person will ask you to extend your arm and stand on one leg. They will push down on your arm and, lo and behold, you will become unbalanced. Then, after giving you a band and repeating the experiment, you will miraculously be able to resist the pressure.
Seems amazing, but in actual fact a fourth effect, the idio-motor effect (or, in some cases, pure malicious intent from the seller), is in play. In the first test the sales person pushed down but slightly away from your body, leading you to overbalance, while in the second test they pushed down and slightly towards your body, helping you to anchor. Richard Saunders has an amazing video of his experiences being tested by an EKEN Band seller at Sexpo this year where the effect is clearly evident, and he uses the same tricks to show the miraculous balance powers of the Skeptics' mascot, Little Nomington. Powers that rival the Power Balance Bands in every way!!
To round out the story of Power Balance, following their winning of the Choice Magazine Shonky Award, the ACCC recently banned then from promoting the bullshit they have been saying about their bands. Rather than fight against what should be an error in judgement from the ACCC if their marketing was provable, Power Balance admitted straight up that there was no evidence for the efficacy of their product. They have, as noted above, removed the dodgy explanations from their website pending, hopefully (but not likely) an explanation of the three effects explained above. They were also ordered to refund any customer who requested it the money they had wasted on their shonky crap.
This is a massive win for good sense and the ACCC should be applauded. If only they would also go after the myriad other alternative practitioners who get away with selling inefficacious or placebo-based products or services (yes, Reiki practitioners, Acupuncturists, crystal healers, faith healers, psychics and remote viewers, I'm looking at you).
If you own a Power Balance band, or anything similar, I urge you to return it and get the refund you are entitled to. If you don't have one, I urge you to never get one and to ridicule anyone who does, in turn urging them to request a refund.
But in either case, when you see someone selling something with a fishy sounding pseudoscientific explanation, do some research (don't just look at the seller's website) and work out if it has any credibility first. It might save you $60, or more.
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