Do psychedelic trips change personality and feeling connected?
Four weeks after a self-chosen psychedelic experience, people described themselves as less anxious and less critical or quarrelsome and felt somewhat more socially connected, though with no control group these small changes cannot be firmly attributed to the drug.
Source
Examining Psychedelic-Induced Changes in Social Functioning and Connectedness in a Naturalistic Online Sample Using the Five-Factor Model of Personality
Study at a glance
- Design
- Cohort — Prospective observational online survey with no control group: measures taken 1 week before, and 2 and 4 weeks after, a psychedelic experience participants had already planned, plus moderators measured the day before and day after
- N
- N=148 · 148 participants completed all three trait timepoints; supplementary analyses used 249 people with baseline and 2-week data and 162 with baseline and 4-week data, out of 741 who responded to any survey
- Population
- Adult volunteers recruited online (social media, newsletters, drug forums) who already intended to take a classic psychedelic
- Outcome
- Ten-Item Personality Inventory items, empathic concern, perspective taking, compassion, absorption, Social Connectedness Scale and a self-other overlap Relatedness scale
Structured fields used in claim comparison tables when every cited study has a complete layer.
What they did
Researchers set up a website where people who were already planning to take a psychedelic such as psilocybin or LSD could sign up and receive surveys by email. Participants rated their personality, empathy, compassion and sense of connection to others a week before the experience and again 2 and 4 weeks after, and reported on the acute experience itself (e.g., mystical feelings, emotional breakthrough, challenging moments) the day after. The team used linear mixed models to test change over time and whether factors like baseline traits, prior psychedelic use or the nature of the trip predicted who changed.
What they found
Two weeks after the experience, participants rated themselves as less anxious and less critical/quarrelsome, and somewhat calmer, more extraverted and more socially connected; at 4 weeks the drops in anxiety and critical behaviour and the rise in social connectedness remained. Compassion, empathic concern and warmth did not change. People who started out low in perspective taking or relatedness, or high in anxiety, showed larger improvements, though the authors caution this may partly be regression to the mean. Mystical experience and dose did not predict change; only emotional breakthrough predicted a drop in being 'reserved', which may be a chance finding.
The limits
What it doesn't show
There was no control group, so the changes could reflect expectancy, placebo, demand effects, or simply time passing, rather than the drug. Most people who signed up did not complete all surveys, and if those who had disappointing experiences dropped out, the remaining sample would overstate benefits. Personality was measured with single items from a 10-item inventory with low internal consistency, all outcomes were self-reported, and the type and dose of substance could not be verified. Participants were self-selected volunteers who already planned to use psychedelics, limiting generalisation.
Key terms
- Five-Factor Model (Big Five)
- A framework describing personality with five broad traits: neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness.
- Neuroticism
- A tendency toward negative emotions such as anxiety, moodiness and stress reactivity.
- Agreeableness
- A tendency to be considerate, cooperative and warm rather than critical or antagonistic toward others.
- Regression to the mean
- The statistical tendency for people with extreme scores at one time to score closer to average at a later time, even without any real change.
- Attrition bias
- Distortion that arises when people who drop out of a study differ systematically from those who stay.
- Naturalistic design
- Studying behaviour as it happens in everyday life, without researchers controlling the exposure, here people's own planned drug use.
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Common questions
Does this show psychedelics make people less anxious?
It shows people reported less anxiety after a psychedelic experience, but without a comparison group who did not take a psychedelic, expectations, drop-out and natural fluctuation could explain some or all of the change.
Why did the researchers analyse single personality items instead of whole traits?
The two-item trait scores for openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness had very low internal consistency, so combining items could hide changes; the trade-off is that single items are less reliable.
Why did people who started with more extreme scores change more?
This could be a real effect of psychedelics on those with more room to improve, but it is also exactly what regression to the mean predicts, so the authors ran extra checks and still treat these results as tentative.
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