Personality
Do psychedelic trips change personality and feeling connected?
Open access · cc by · source: Europe PMC
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.
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
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Key findings
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.
Methodology
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.
Limitations
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.
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