Sonja is being treated by her psychiatrist for an anxiety disorder. her therapist knows the extent of sonja's faith in medication and gives her pills that contain no active ingredients. despite this, sonja's anxiety decreases. sonja's recovery is due to her belief that the pill has taken away her anxiety. this is an example of

This is an example of the placebo effect.

The placebo effect refers to the phenomenon in which a placebo (a fake cure or treatment) improves a person's health and well-being simply because the person believes that it will be effective. In this instance, the placebo that Sonja's therapist gave her was probably a sugar pill (with no active ingredient). Since Sonja has faith in medication, her belief in the ability of the "anti-anxiety" pills caused her recovery.