Self-Reported Drug Use and Creativity: (Re)Establishing Layperson Myths

Introduction

Humphrey and colleagues begin by situating the study within a longstanding lay belief that drug use enhances creativity. Earlier research has produced mixed and often weak evidence: some experimental and correlational studies report self-perceived links between substances (alcohol, marijuana, “harder” drugs, and psychotropics) and creative thinking, while objective measures of creative performance typically show little or no benefit and sometimes harm. Several studies suggest expectancy or placebo effects may account for apparent gains, and personality—particularly openness to experience—covaries with both drug use and creativity, complicating interpretation. This study set out to test whether self-reported drug use predicts creativity beyond openness to experience. Using a multi-method approach, the investigators combined multiple self-report creativity measures with a performance-based photo-caption task rated by trained judges, and assessed legal, illegal, and psychotropic drug use (recent and lifetime). The authors tested three hypotheses: H1 that people who report using legal/illegal drugs will also report higher creativity; H2 that drug use will show a weak relationship with behavioural performance on the photo-caption task; and H3 that psychotropic drug use will not be associated with self-reported or behavioural creativity. Openness to experience was included as a control variable to test incremental prediction by drug-use factors.