In a sample of 392 participants (233 with lifetime psychedelic use), the study found a moderate positive association between psychedelic use and endorsement of "alternative facts" and the belief that facts are politically influenced, while no link was observed for preferring intuition over evidence and alcohol use was negatively associated with alternative‑fact beliefs. The authors interpret this as evidence that psychedelic use correlates with non‑conformist thinking styles, which may reflect drug effects or pre‑existing unconventional belief traits.
Previous research has suggested that classical psychedelics can foster significant and enduring changes in personality traits and subjective wellbeing. Despite the lack of evidence for adverse effects on mental health stemming from psychedelic use, concerns persist regarding the capacity of these substances to modulate information processing and attitudes towards factual data. The aim of the present study was to investigate the propensity for accepting alternative facts and the general treatment of knowledge within a sample of 392 participants, 233 of whom reported at least a single incidence of psychedelic use in their lifetime. To do this, we leveraged step-wise methods of linear modelling investigating effects of demographics, psychiatric conditions and concomitant drug use. Our findings revealed a moderate positive association between psychedelic use and beliefs in alternative facts, as well as the specific belief that facts are politically influenced. However, no links were found for favouring intuition over evidence when confirming facts. Among other investigated drugs, only alcohol was negatively associated with beliefs in alternative facts. Taken together, our results support the link between psychedelic use and non-conformist thinking styles, which can be attributed to the psychological effects of the drugs themselves, but may also mirror a common trait related to unconventional beliefs and illicit substance use.
Lebedev and colleagues situate the study within a context of growing policy liberalisation and scientific interest in classical psychedelics (LSD, psilocybin, DMT), noting prior small-scale clinical findings that motivated wider attention to these substances. Earlier research has documented links between psychedelics and changes in personality, wellbeing and life attitudes, but the authors identify a gap concerning how psychedelic use relates to individuals' epistemic styles and acceptance of "alternative facts" or conspiratorial beliefs. They also note debate in the literature about whether non-conformist attitudes associated with psychedelic culture reflect drug effects or pre-existing subcultural traits. The present cross-sectional study therefore aimed to test associations between patterns of drug use, with a focus on classical psychedelics, and measures of conspiratorial thinking and epistemic belief tendencies. Specifically, the investigators examined relationships between psychedelic exposure and (1) general conspiracy mentality, and (2) three EBS (Epistemic Belief Scale) facets: Faith in Intuition for facts, Need for evidence, and Truth is political. Secondary aims included exploring links with personality and psychopathology-related traits to contextualise any associations observed.
Papers cited by this study that are also in Blossom
Bogenschutz, M. P., Forcehimes, A. A., Pommy, J. A. et al. · Journal of Psychopharmacology (2015)
Carhart-Harris, R. L., Bolstridge, M., Rucker, J. et al. · Lancet Psychiatry (2016)
Garcia-Romeu, A., Griffiths, R. R., Johnson, M. W. · Current Drug Abuse Reviews (2015)
Kirchner, K. · Journal of Psychopharmacology (2014)
The study used a cross-sectional, web-based survey administered in Swedish and English between January and May 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants (N = 392) were recruited via e-mail invitations to a prior study pool and through social media and forum postings targeting groups likely to include people with experience of psychedelic drugs. No direct compensation was provided. The sample was young on average (mean age about 28 years), predominantly reporting lifetime use of common substances (e.g. alcohol, cannabis, MDMA), with 233 participants reporting at least one lifetime use of psychedelics. The study had ethical approval from the Swedish Ethical Board and obtained informed consent from all participants. Primary measures were the Conspiracy Mentality Questionnaire (CMQ; five items, 0–100% scale) to operationalise beliefs in alternative facts, and the Epistemic Belief Scale (EBS; 12 items divided into Faith in Intuition for facts, Need for evidence, and Truth is political). The investigators also collected detailed self-report measures of drug use (frequency and recency across substance classes), personality (BFI-S, five factors), and psychopathology-related traits (Peters Delusions Inventory, O-LIFE schizotypy, ASRS for ADHD symptoms, RAADS-R for autism spectrum-related symptoms). Swedish translations of CMQ and EBS were psychometrically evaluated (details reported in Supplement). Analyses focused on stepwise linear regression models testing recent and frequent psychedelic use as predictors of CMQ total and EBS facets. The modelling strategy introduced demographic controls (age, sex), psychiatric diagnoses, and concomitant drug use in successive steps. Between-group comparisons (psychedelic users vs non-users) employed independent samples t-tests. The investigators also computed correlation matrices and cross-correlation network plots among drug-use measures, personality, and psychopathology traits. Data screening included Cook's distance for influential outliers (none detected) and inspection of residuals for approximate normality; the Shapiro-Wilk test indicated non-normality for CMQ but residuals were judged adequate for linear modelling. Variance inflation factors were inspected for multicollinearity. Multiple comparisons were corrected using the false discovery rate procedure.
Recent use of psychedelics was associated with higher scores on the CMQ in a single-predictor model (standardised β = 0.174, t = 3.49, p < .001; R2 ≈ .032). This association persisted within the subsample of psychedelic users (N = 233; β = 0.147, p = .024). After adjusting for age, sex and psychiatric conditions, recent psychedelic use remained a significant predictor in the full sample (β = 0.212, p = .001) and in psychedelic users (β = 0.195, p = .022). In a fully adjusted model including concomitant drug use, recent psychedelic use (β = 0.187, p = .027) and alcohol use (β = −0.142, p = .023) were differentially associated with beliefs in alternative facts in the whole sample, although these effects became marginal when the analysis was restricted to psychedelic users. Introducing the Peters Delusions Inventory into models reduced some effects to marginal significance (psychedelics p ≈ .05). A separate model analysing frequent use across drug classes found stimulants to be the only significant predictor of CMQ scores (standardised β ≈ 0.222, p = .028). Analyses limited to participants without psychiatric diagnoses (n = 200, 73.26%) showed broadly similar patterns for psychedelic and alcohol effects, though some estimates became marginally significant in fully adjusted models. The Swedish subsample scored lower on CMQ than the non-Swedish sample (47.18 ± 20.98 vs 53.08 ± 22; t = 2.71, p = .007); adjusting for mother tongue did not materially change results. Group comparisons indicated that lifetime psychedelic users (N = 233) had higher mean CMQ scores than non-users (M = 52.42, SD = 21 vs M = 46.44, SD = 22; t ≈ 2.69, p = .008, Pcorr = .0076), with a small effect size d = 0.28 (95% CI 0.075–0.48). Among CMQ subitems, the difference for the "secret organisations" item remained significant after multiple comparison correction (Pcorr = .001); differences for "misinformation" and "politics" were of marginal significance after correction. For EBS facets, no association was found between recent psychedelic use and Faith in Intuition for facts. Need for evidence was not predicted by recent use in primary models, but a single-predictor model found frequent psychedelic use predicted lower Need for evidence (β = −0.130, p = .024); this effect remained after demographic adjustment but was lost when controlling for concomitant drug use. By contrast, Truth is political showed a consistent association with recent psychedelic use: single-predictor model β = 0.176 (p = .002), remaining significant after demographic controls and marginally significant when adjusting for other drug use (psychedelics β = 0.197, p = .048). Including PDI reduced this effect to marginal significance in some models. Between-group comparisons for EBS showed psychedelic users scored higher on Truth is political (M = 2.85 vs 2.53; t ≈ 2.58, p = .006, Pcorr = .0177) and marginally lower on Need for evidence (Pcorr ≈ .075). Regarding personality and psychopathology correlations, agreeableness showed a small positive correlation with recent stimulant use (r = .116, p = .021). Neuroticism displayed small negative correlations with recent and frequent use of psychedelics, MDMA and tobacco. Delusion-proneness correlated positively with recent and frequent psychedelic use (recent r = .169, p = .005). The authors report broader correlation matrices linking CMQ and EBS facets with O-LIFE, PDI, RAADS and ASRS, indicating associations between conspiracy mentality and schizotypy-related traits, but full matrices and exact values are presented in supplementary material.
Lebedev and colleagues interpret their findings as evidence of an association between psychedelic use and a greater propensity to endorse non-conventional beliefs, particularly general conspiracy mentality and the view that factual information is politically influenced. They note that these associations remained after controlling for demographic variables and other drug use in several models, though some effects attenuated to marginal significance when additional covariates (for example PDI) or when analyses were restricted to users only. The study did not support the hypothesis that psychedelic use is associated with a stronger preference for intuition over evidence (Faith in Intuition for facts). The authors situate the results against prior literature linking unconventional beliefs with personality traits such as high openness and low conscientiousness, and with schizotypy-like traits; they confirm similar patterns in their sample and argue that openness and non-conformity may partly explain the association between psychedelic use and beliefs. Two alternative explanations are advanced: (a) pre-existing differences lead certain individuals both to use psychedelics and to endorse alternative views; or (b) psychedelic experiences causally alter epistemic style, increasing receptivity to non-conventional ideas. The authors emphasise that the present cross-sectional design cannot distinguish these possibilities and suggest longitudinal or experimental studies assessing beliefs before and after psychedelic administration. Several limitations are acknowledged. The data are self-reported, which may introduce reporting bias for both drug use and beliefs. The sample was recruited from groups with expected higher recreational drug use and was largely Swedish; this restricts generalisability and may reflect cultural or platform-specific biases. The investigators did not collect robust quantity measures for substance exposure and observed little heterogeneity in age at first use, limiting analyses of dose–response or developmental timing. Finally, data were gathered before the COVID-19 pandemic, which the authors consider both a strength (avoiding pandemic-related confounds) and a contextual caveat for replication. In closing, the authors present the study as an initial step addressing an understudied question: whether and how patterns of drug use relate to information processing and epistemic beliefs. They call for multidisciplinary, longitudinal, and experimental research to disentangle causal mechanisms and to inform policy and public-health considerations without promoting stigma towards users of illicit substances.
The participants were recruited through e-mail invitations sent out to a pool of people who had participated in a previous study examining the links between psychedelic use and schizotypy. The recruitment for the present study was done before the COVID19 pandemic, over a period between January and May 2019. No compensation was given in direct relation to participating in the present survey. The study employed a cross-sectional approach, targeting a demographic comprised primarily of healthy young adults in Sweden. We utilized G*Power v3 to calculate an appropriate sample size for detecting small-tomedium effect sizes. A sample size of at least 150 participants was deemed appropriate for the study. A large variability in drug use patterns was observed with many people using drugs concomitantly: out of 392 participating subjects 376 people reported having used alcohol at least once, 324 used cannabis, 224 used MDMA, 97 used opiates, 233 used psychedelics, 212 used stimulants, and 341 reported uses of tobacco, and 16 reported not using any drugs. The survey was administered in Swedish and English. All participants provided informed consent prior to participation. The study was approved by the Swedish Ethical Board (DNR: 2018/1040-31).
Prior to statistical analysis, all data was screened for outliers with high influence, using Cook's Distance. A Cook's distance > 1.0 was considered large. No outliers were detected. Normality of the distributions was analysed for the total score of CMQ and the three facets of EBS: 1-Faith in Intuition for facts (FI-facts), 2-Need for evidence and 3-Truth is political). The Shapiro-Wilk test for normality indicated that the data for the total score of CMQ was not normally distributed (p < .001) although an overview of histogram and distribution of residuals revealed sufficient normality for the analysis employing linear modelling. Similarly, regarding the EBS facets, normal distribution of residuals was considered sufficient to support the planned analysis, and no additional transformations were carried out. In order to investigate the relationship between recent psychedelic drug use, alcohol use and beliefs in alternative facts, as measured by the total score of CMQ, three linear regression models were fitted stepwise. The first model included recent use of psychedelics as a single-variable predictor of beliefs in alternative facts (the outcome variable total score on the CMQ). Next step included verification of significant findings by means of additional adjustments for demographics, psychiatric conditions, and concomitant drug use. In the last step, an exploratory analysis was performed investigating the relationship between frequent use of the different drugs of reference and epistemic beliefs. To test the hypotheses regarding the effect of recent use of psychedelics on the three facets of epistemic beliefs (FI-facts, Need for evidence, Truth is political), as measured with EBS, several linear regression models were fitted stepwise, employing a similar strategy. The first step included three single-variable models with recent use of psychedelics, as predictors, as measured by the latest intake of the drug. Each model had a different EBS factor as an outcome variable. Next steps followed the same procedure as for the CMQ analysis. To check for multi-collinearity, the variance inflation factors (VIFs) were inspected. A VIF < 1 was considered satisfactory. To further investigate the associations between the use of psychedelics and beliefs in alternative facts, a comparison between two groups was also carried out. The group of psychedelic users (N = 233) included people who had reported having used psychedelics at least once in their lifetime. The second group consisted of subjects that reported not using psychedelics (non-users, N = 159). In order to establish if there were any significant differences between the groups in relation to the total score on CMQ and its subitems, independent samples t-tests were performed. The same procedure was performed for the three facets of the EBS (N total = 305, N users = 180, N non-users = 125). Following the main analyses, we also reported inherent associations among the variables under investigation within the sample of psychedelic users (n = 180), leveraging cross-correlation network plot. Finally, two correlation matrices were estimated. The first included measures of recent use and the different subscales of BFI-S as well as the composite score delusion proneness, in order to investigate the associations between different drug use patterns and personality. The second matrix included raw-scores for psychopathology (O-LIFE, PDI, RAADS, ASRS) as well as the total score of CMQ and the three facets of EBS, in order to explore the associations between our main measures and psychopathology. To correct for multiple comparisons, the false discovery rate procedure was employed, as represented in-text with the variable Pcorr. The factor analyses were performed using Lavaan package version 0.6-5in R Studio version 3.6.2. All other statistical analyses were carried out in Jamovi (Version 1.1.9.0) and replicated independently in R Studio version 3.6.2.
The primary aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between patterns of drug use and users' beliefs, with a particular emphasis on classical psychedelics. The focus was to examine potential associations between psychedelic exposure and the inclination to affirm alternative views related to three distinct epistemic beliefs, as measured by the Epistemic Belief System (EBS): (1) reliance on intuition for fact formation (Faith in intuition for facts), (2) tendency to corroborate assertions with empirical data (Need for evidence), and (3) perception of factual information as politically driven (Truth is political). In a similar way, we wanted to elucidate their relation to non-conventual beliefs (using CMQ). To further understand the complex associations between drug use patterns and beliefs, we also wanted to look at these relationships in connection to different personality and psychopathology-related traits. The obtained results aligned with our expectations, showing a statistically significant association between recent and frequent psychedelic use and affirmations of alternative views, as assessed by the Conspiracy Mentality Questionnaire. Correspondingly, recent alcohol consumption exhibited an inverse relationship with the endorsement of alternative views. Also noteworthy is the significant positive association between frequent stimulant use and alternative views. The yielded results retained significance after controlling for demographic factors and concomitant drug use, indicating that certain drug use patterns might be associated with accepting non-conventional beliefs, such as conspiracy theories, which previous research has tied to intuition-based rather than evidence-based beliefs. Contrary to our hypothesis, the study did not establish any association between psychedelic use and a preference for intuition over facts. Collectively, these findings suggest that psychedelic use may be linked to cognitive styles that question mainstream information sources rather than to outlandish conspiracy ideation. Previous literature has found connections between the endorsement of alternative facts and certain psychopathology-related traits, including facets like paranoia and schizotypy. This finding has been confirmed in the present study as well showing significant associations between beliefs in alternative facts and facets of schizotypy. Of note, our group previously explored the link between psychedelic use and schizotypy and found that this association is largely explained by use of other drugs like stimulants. However, the association with unconventional beliefs remained significant even after adjusting for other drug use, suggesting a specific link to psychedelic use. Some, but not allstudies identified associations between alcohol use and pro-social behaviours and beliefs. In this context, our results showing negative association between alcohol use and beliefs in alternative facts provide certain support for this link. However, they must be interpreted with caution as only a minority of the participants reported to never have used alcohol. Of note, we also confirm previous findings demonstrating that alcohol use is associated with extraversion. Furthermore, the use of all investigated drugs except opiates and alcohol, revealed significant associations with high scores on the personality trait openness. The use of MDMA and stimulants showed negative associations with the trait conscientiousness. These results are in line with previous literature. Scoring high on openness and low on conscientiousness is not merely associated with drug use but may also reflect openness toward unconventional views and non-conformity. It is again important to acknowledge that most (73.26%) of our subjects were healthy, normally functioning adults and that higher scores on the CMQ do not equal pathological conspiracy ideation. In fact, it could be hypothesized that the challenging of social and ideological norms can be triggered by real societal phenomena such as the revealing of widely spread surveillance programs, e.g. the leak of the NSA files, or the lack of adequate legal frameworks protecting personal integrity and privacy on the internet. In this perspective, a theoretical separation between the pathological grounded conspiracist beliefs and the unconventional healthy sceptic must be assumed. This may indicate that the results, in fact, rather reflect an existing spectrum of non-conformist mentality, which to a degree is dependent on contextual factors. This view is supported in our exploration of between-group differences in main facets of the CMQ. In line with this line of thought, psychedelic users scored significantly higher than non-users on two items (secret organizations, misinformation), however, the item hidden connections ("I think that events which superficially seem to lack a connection are often the result of secret activities. ") was not significant between the groups. Of note, it can be speculated that this particular item reflects an integral aspect of the pathological conspiracy construct, namely, the tendency to see patterns of extraordinary phenomena in everythingor pareidolia. The absence of between-group differences in this domain support the idea that the results may reflect differences in non-conformity and general scepticism toward official sources of information, rather than a conspiracy ideation per se. The presence of a difference between users and non-users of psychedelics in relation to beliefs in alternative facts suggest a least two possible explanations: (a) individuals inclined towards psychedelic use might inherently affirm alternative views more than others, irrespective of the drug's effects, due to shared traits or environment, or (b) these individuals might develop such beliefs following psychedelic experiences that enhance their openness to experience and novel, unconventional ideas. Further experimental investigations assessing non-conformist ideation and epistemic beliefs before and after the administration of psychedelics could provide further clarity on these drugs' potential to significantly alter how people process information. Taken together, our findings should not be misconstrued as advocating restrictive drug policies. Conspiracy ideation is a complex societal issue, more nuanced than a direct consequence of drug use, and could even be fuelled by societal alienation and the ostracization of users of certain drugs. Hence, the stigmatization of psychedelic drug users and the resultant social polarization may cultivate the conditions that foster conspiracy ideation. Moreover, the increasing prevalence of psychedelic culture and scepticism towards mainstream media might be components of the same generational shift in attitudes, as some scholars suggest. It is important to acknowledge that there are several limitations that restrict the generalizability of our findings. First, self-reporting is an inevitable limitation when assessing unobservable behaviours like beliefs and attitudes. All scales measuring such constructs possess inherent limitations in terms of accuracy and reliability that are often beyond the reach of current scientific methodologies. Specifically, reporting bias in relation to drug use have previously been found, highlighting the need for objective measures. Unfortunately, for this study, such measures were unfeasible, making self-reported measures the only accessible tool. As such, the presence of bias in this study is plausible, wherein participants could either underreport or exaggerate their drug use habits. Moreover, the study's scope was primarily focused on the Swedish population, specifically within groups where recreational drug use was expected. This specificity inevitably limits the generalizability of our findings. Cultural, social, and political contexts play a significant role in shaping both drug use patterns and belief systems. Thus, the associations observed in this study, rooted in a particular socio-cultural context, may not hold true across different populations or cultures. There may be distinct patterns in drug use and alternative beliefs amongst diverse global communities, influenced by numerous variables such as societal norms, drug policies, and cultural attitudes towards unconventional beliefs. Consequently, our findings should be cautiously extrapolated beyond the studied demographics notwithstanding the confirmed invariance for the main study scales in Swedish and non-Swedish groups and equivalent main finding's effect-sizes. Future studies with more diverse and representative samples are necessary to verify and extend our results. The COVID-19 pandemic is another important contextual factor. It should be noted that data for this study were collected before any general restrictions were implemented in Sweden. This may be seen as a strength, as subsequent restrictions and social distancing measures may have affected responses. It also suggests caution for future replication attempts and indicates a potentially interesting area of future research exploring whether there are subpopulations particularly sensitive to such events. This study tried to tease out potential links between drug use and beliefs, which is why both measures of frequency and recency of use were collected. Including a measurement of quantity could have improved the validity of our measures. This would have refined our measure of exposure to the different drugs to a greater extent. However, estimating an average quantity of use over time may be problematic considering it being a heterogeneous and context-specific behaviour. Intra-individual differences regarding quantity might therefore be larger than the inter-individual differences, making it a poor measure in this case. We did include a measure regarding age and drug use. This was meant to complement the other measures with the purpose of evaluating differences between longer and heavier use, compared to shorter and more recreational forms of use. Unfortunately, this was not possible as the sample was quite homogenous. Most participants reported to have started using drugs at the same age, with a few "late starters" and no "early starters". Therefore, the present study was focused on variables that represent a more nuanced understanding of exposure in order to better tease out its effects in a manner that is not confounded by age. In conclusion, our results suggest that psychedelic use is associated with non-conformist views, specifically, with beliefs in alternative facts and the belief that facts are influenced by politics. To the best of our knowledge, these findings are unprecedented in connection to current scientific research. As a result, this study represents a first step towards filling the knowledge gap regarding the associations between different drug use patterns and information processing. Many unanswered questions remain, and a continuation of this research in a multidisciplinary direction would be beneficial in order to better understand the underlying neural and behavioural mechanisms related to these constructs. Do certain drugs exhibit lasting effects on people's perception, beliefs and behaviour or do the discovered associations rather represent effects of non-conformist subpopulations that are more likely to question conventional socio-political norms, including use of illicit drugs? What is the role of alienation of illicit drug users on their non-conformist points of view? Answering these questions could provide valuable insights into factors surrounding drug abuse and inform evidence-based drug policy-making.
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