What Dr. Alia Crum's famous milkshake study teaches us about integrating AI in radiology, its very interesting!

Your Brain on AI: It's Not What You Think

Picture this: Two radiologists sit side by side, using the exact same AI diagnostic tool. One loves it, finds it incredibly helpful, and sees their diagnostic accuracy improve. The other feels threatened, fights every suggestion, and somehow performs worse than before AI arrived.

Same technology. Completely different outcomes. Why?

The answer might surprise you—and it comes from a psychology professor at Stanford who tricked people with milkshakes.

The Milkshake That Changed Everything

Dr. Alia Crum runs the Stanford Mind & Body Lab, and she's obsessed with how our beliefs literally change our biology. Her most famous experiment? The milkshake study that blew everyone's mind. One Indulgnet and the other Healthy...

Here's what she did: She gave people identical 380-calorie milkshakes. But she told half the group they were drinking a 620-calorie "indulgent" shake, and the other half thought they were getting a 140-calorie "sensible" shake.

Then she measured their ghrelin—the hunger hormone that tells your body when you're full.

The results? "The ghrelin levels dropped about three times more when people thought they were consuming the indulgent shake," Crum explained on the Huberman Lab podcast. Their bodies responded to what they believed they were drinking, not what they actually consumed.

Think about that for a second. Same milkshake. Same calories. But their mindset about what they were drinking literally changed their hormones.

What Dr. Crum Calls "Core Beliefs"

Crum defines mindsets as "core assumptions that we have about domains or categories of things that orient us to a particular set of expectations, explanations, and goals." In simpler terms: How you think about something fundamentally shapes what happens when you interact with it.

So here's the million-dollar question:

If beliefs can change hormones, weight loss, and stress responses—what are they doing to how radiologists experience AI?

The AI Milkshake Effect for Radiologists

Right now, radiology has 222 commercial AI products available. That's a 122% increase in just three years. But adoption? Still lagging. The problem isn't the technology—it's the mindset. The botom line is that because of mindset still not focused but also due to a lack of desing of IT in healthcare ( EMR were mot made for AI, along with RIS-PACS).

Some radiologists approach AI thinking: "This thing is trying to replace me. It's going to make me obsolete. Every suggestion it makes challenges my expertise."

Others think: "This is like having a super-smart resident who never gets tired, can spot patterns I might miss, and makes me better at my job."

Guess which group performs better?

Your Daily AI Placebo Dose

Crum's research shows that positive mindsets create real physiological changes:

• Lower stress hormones (better decision-making)
• Increased dopamine (improved learning)
• Enhanced focus (better pattern recognition)

The opposite mindset? Stress, anxiety, and impaired performance. It's like a nocebo effect—negative expectations creating negative outcomes.

The Three Core Beliefs That Matter

If you want AI to actually help you (instead of driving you crazy), check your beliefs in these areas:

1. AI as Collaborator vs. Competitor

The Good: "AI is my diagnostic partner"

The bad: "AI is trying to replace me"

2. Technology as Evolution vs. Invasion

The good : "Every great medical advance started with new tools"

The bad : "Technology is moving too fast, hate code"

3. Learning as Growth vs. Burden

The Good: "Understanding AI makes me more valuable"

The Bad: "I shouldn't need to learn this stuff"

The 2-Minute Morning Mindset Shift

Want to try your own AI placebo effect? Before you start your day with AI tools, take two minutes to:

1. Remind yourself why AI helps: Better detection rates, less fatigue, catching subtle findings
2. Reframe disagreements: When AI suggests something different, think "interesting perspective" not "wrong answer"
3. Celebrate wins: Notice when AI helps you make a diagnosis or confirms a tricky finding

This isn't about blind optimism. It's about priming your brain to work with the technology instead of against it.

Taking a learning course is a must. (Actually I am creating one for zero-ground radiologists!)

The Bottom Line

Dr. Crum's milkshake study revealed something profound: "The total effect of anything is a combined product of what you're doing and what you think about what you're doing."

In radiology, that means: AI effectiveness = Technology capabilities × Your mindset about that technology.

You can have the most sophisticated AI in the world, but if you approach it with fear, resistance, and skepticism, you're drinking the "sensible shake" while your colleague next door gets the full "indulgent" experience from the exact same tool.

The future of radiology isn't just about better ChatGPTS—it's about better mindsets. And unlike waiting for the next AI breakthrough, you can change your mindset today. AI is not chatting in healthcare.

So tomorrow morning, before you fire up that AI diagnostic tool, ask yourself: What kind of milkshake am I about to drink?

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Dr. Alia Crum is Associate Professor of Psychology at Stanford University, Director of the Stanford Mind & Body Lab, and was recently featured on the Huberman Lab podcast discussing the science of mindsets.