Answer:
So that the researchers know how much of the result is a trick of your mind and how much of the result is real.
Step-by-step explanation:
So first, in order to answer this question we need to know what a placebo is.
Placebo: any treatment that has no active properties, like a sugar pill.
Now we ask ourselves, how could a placebo be something of interest in human studies?
Our brains are amazing things and can connivence themselves many things. Hints the phrase "placebo effect" that is very common in the medical field.
The placebo effect (a positive effect produced by a placebo drug or treatment, which cannot be attributed to the properties of the placebo itself, and must therefore be due to the patient's belief in that treatment) is a really good example as to why they are useful in human studies.
How else could you know was a true effect or just something someone believed would happen anyway?