Study 1 effectively proves that those people who believe that ASMR is a thing will report all the effects of ASMR when exposed to ASMR. It also shows that people who don’t believe that ASMR do not report those things. That’s fairly self evident.

Study 2 is more interesting and I agree it shows a physically recordable response to the videos; but that would also be true of any placebo. If you give someone a sugar pill and tell them it’s calming, their heart rate will slow and their stress levels will lower. They address this in the conclusion.

A key limitation in both studies is the possibility that our findings (particularly those related to tingle frequency and affective states) reflect a demand characteristic or expectation effect; that is, ASMR participants experienced changes in affect and physiology because they expected to whereas non-ASMR participant had no such expectations.

In short, ASMR has a measurable effect…. but exactly like magic crystals, placebo pills, casting magic spells and Mummy telling you that kisses take away the pain of a scraped knee— it’s mostly a matter of belief, confirmation bias and placebo.

The experiment was interesting though; made for some wonderful morning reading. Thanks for posting and carrying on the discussion :o)