million people affected worldwide
Current Treatments
Psychedelic research currently is in Preclinical
Key Insights
- Personality entails the characteristics of patterns, thoughts, feelings and behaviours that make a person unique. Personality is ever-changing and can be influenced by a range of factors.
- Psychedelics’ ability to influence the various dimensions of personality tends to be a secondary measure in studies focusing on their ability to alleviate symptoms of mental health disorders such as PTSD, depression and anxiety.
- Based on the limited evidence available, psychedelics hold the potential to impact personality positively, making people more open to new experiences and extraverted, but further research is needed to clarify this.
What is personality?
At the simplest level, personality entails the characteristic patterns of thoughts, feelings and behaviours that make a person unique. Personality is ever-changing throughout the course of a person’s life, as they are subject to various environmental factors and life-changing experiences.
Fundamental characteristics of the thoughts and emotions that underlie personality include psychological and physiological processes, a recognisable and regular order to behaviours, how one responds to their environment and acts in certain ways, as well as having multiple expressions which can be seen in our thoughts, feelings, close relationships, and other social interactions [1].
There are numerous ways to characterise personality’s various dimensions, and no universally accepted method exists. One well-known theory has been termed the ‘Big Five,’ NEO PI-R, or OCEAN. As the name suggests, the Big Five consists of five broad categories encompassing various personality traits.
These categories include extraversion, agreeableness, openness to experience, conscientiousness, and neuroticism. Underlying these categories are qualities that range between two extremes, i.e. extraversion represents a continuum between extreme extraversion and extreme introversion [2].
Researching personality can provide fascinating insights into how a person changes and develops over a lifetime. Personality assessments can help people learn more about themselves and their strengths and weaknesses [1].
Such findings can have important real-world implications, such as what career a person may be best suited to or how well they may perform in a particular job. Furthermore, research has found that personality can impact mental and physical health [3].
Given the impact of personality on a person’s quality of life, researchers are continuously exploring personality’s various dimensions to better understand how personality works and if it can be altered.
Psychedelics and Personality
In psychedelic science, psychedelics have been shown to influence various aspects of personality. Seeing as personality entails a range of different dimensions, researchers are continuing to explore how different psychedelics can influence the various aspects of personality. Measuring the effects psychedelics have on various aspects of personality are common secondary measures in trials exploring the impact of psychedelic-assisted therapy on mental disorders.
A comprehensive review by Bouso and colleagues (2018) on the influence psychedelic can have on personality yielded interesting results. Given that some personality traits seem to be related to 5-HT2A receptor expression, Bouso and colleagues postulated that acute and long-term use of serotonergic psychedelics is associated with personality changes through modulation of 5-HT2A receptors.
Based on their findings, the researchers also found that psychedelics may increase Openness and Self-Transcendence in individuals when administered in a controlled environment. Other studies have found that psychedelics can increase Openness, which could be associated with the therapeutic benefit people gain when undergoing psychedelic-assisted therapy.
Using LSD, one placebo-controlled study found decreases in the functional activity and higher-order networks in the brain, which were predictive of increases in Openness up to two weeks after LSD consumption. In this study, brain activity was measured using fMRI, and the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) was used to measure personality traits.
A follow-up study to a MAPS sponsored trial exploring the effects of MDMA-assisted therapy found that increased levels of Openness under the influence of MDMA plays a role in the observed reduction in PTSD post-therapy session. The same study also found that decreased Neuroticism had no effects.
A different open-label study exploring the effects of psilocybin in people with treatment-resistant depression yielded interesting results at the three-month follow-up. These researchers found that Neuroticism was decreased while Extraversion and Openness were increased.
Using the NEO-PI-R, researchers in this separate study also found that a single high dose of psilocybin led to increased Openness and long-term mindfulness.
Microdosing, the practice of regularly using low doses of psychedelics, may also have the ability to lead to changes in personality.
In this prospective survey study, most participants microdosed using either psilocybin or LSD. After one month of microdosing, researchers found increases in Conscientiousness and decreases in Neuroticism, while Agreeableness, Openness, and Extraversion remained unaffected. Additionally, extraversion was positively correlated with participants’ number of lifetime doses and the duration of their prior microdosing experience. In contrast, neuroticism was negatively correlated with the duration of prior microdosing experience.
A study exploring the effects of ceremonial ayahuasca consumption on personality found similar results regarding Neuroticism. Across the Big Five categories, the open-label study reported decreases in neuroticism directly after the ayahuasca ceremony and three months later to be their strongest findings. However, given that there was no control group, these results should be taken lightly.
A survey study conducted by the team at Johns Hopkins found that Neuroticism may contribute to the strength of challenging experiences with psychedelics in uncontrolled settings.
A recent article used case studies to debunk the idea that psychedelic use is linked to increased environmental concern and liberal politics. Instead, it is argued that the psychedelic experience can lead to a shift in any direction of political belief. The authors suggest that the historical record supports the concept of psychedelics as “politically pluripotent,” non-specific amplifiers of the political set and setting.
Thus, while psychedelics may have the ability to alter dimensions of personality positively, it may all come back to the importance of set and setting.
Final Thoughts
Psychedelics do have the potential to alter the various characteristics of personality. Similarly, personality can alter the psychedelic experience. Whether the changes to personality incurred due to the psychedelic experience are truly long-lasting remains to be seen.
Based on the limited evidence available, psychedelics can potentially impact personality if they are close-minded and perhaps introverted positively. In this area of psychedelic science, further research will tell us if the current increases in Openness we are seeing are associated with positive therapeutic outcomes.
Nonetheless, the ability of these psychoactive drugs to influence a person’s personality is not going unnoticed, and more concrete evidence will emerge in the years to come.
References
1. Cherry, K. (2020). What is personality? VeryWell Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-personality-2795416
2. Lim, A. (2020). The Big Five Personality Traits. Simply Psychology. https://www.simplypsychology.org/big-five-personality.html
3. Smith, T. (2006). Personality as Risk and Resilience in Physical Health. Current Directions in Psychological Science. https://doi.org/10.1111%2Fj.1467-8721.2006.00441.x
Highlighted Institutes
These are the institutes, from companies to universities, who are working on Personality.
Highlighted People
These are some of the best-known people, from researchers to entrepreneurs, working on Personality.
Linked Research Papers about Personality
Psilocybin and MDMA reduce costly punishment in the Ultimatum Game
The Watts Connectedness Scale: a new scale for measuring a sense of connectedness to self, others, and world
Role of the 5-HT2A Receptor in Self- and Other-Initiated Social Interaction in Lysergic Acid Diethylamide-Induced States: A Pharmacological fMRI Study
Changes in mental health, wellbeing and personality following ayahuasca consumption: Results of a naturalistic longitudinal study
Effects of MDMA and Intranasal oxytocin on social and emotional processing
LSD response in Eysenckian trait types identified by polypredictive CFA
Intimate insight: MDMA changes how people talk about significant others
LSD-induced increases in social adaptation to opinions similar to one's own are associated with stimulation of serotonin receptors
Effects of serotonin 2A/1A receptor stimulation on social exclusion processing
LSD-induced entropic brain activity predicts subsequent personality change
Serotonergic psychedelics and personality: A systematic review of contemporary research
Opening to Awe: Psychedelic-Assisted Self-Transcendence and Positive Adult Development
MDMA decreases the effects of simulated social rejection
Effects of MDMA on socioemotional feelings, authenticity, and autobiographical disclosure in healthy volunteers in a controlled setting
Belief changes associated with psychedelic use
Increased oxytocin concentrations and prosocial feelings in humans after ecstasy (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine) administration
Psilocybin-assisted mindfulness training modulates self-consciousness and brain default mode network connectivity with lasting effects
Neuroticism is associated with challenging experiences with psilocybin mushrooms
Lasting increases in trait mindfulness after psilocybin correlate positively with the mystical-type experience in healthy individuals
MDMA alters emotional processing and facilitates positive social interaction
Persisting effects of ayahuasca on empathy, creative thinking, decentering, personality, and well-being
Trait Openness and serotonin 2A receptors in healthy volunteers: A positron emission tomography study
‘Never drop without your significant other, cause that way lies ruin’: The boundary work of couples who use MDMA together.
Cross-sectional associations between lifetime use of psychedelic drugs and psychometric measures during the COVID-19 confinement: A transcultural study
A Gratuitous Grace: The Influence of Religious Set and Intent on the Psychedelic Experience
Psychological variables implied in the therapeutic effect of ayahuasca: A contextual approach
Acute Effects of the Novel Psychoactive Drug 2C-B on Emotions
Increased Activation of Indirect Semantic Associations under Psilocybin
A window into the intoxicated mind? Speech as an index of psychoactive drug effects
Effects of ecstasy on cooperative behaviour and perception of trustworthiness: A naturalistic study
Acute LSD effects on response inhibition neural networks
Acute effects of methylphenidate, modafinil and MDMA on negative emotion processing
Additive Effects of 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) and Compassionate Imagery on Self-Compassion in Recreational Users of Ecstasy
Lifetime use of psychedelics is associated with better mental health indicators during the COVID-19 pandemic
Effects of psilocybin therapy on personality structure
Effects of MDMA on attention to positive social cues and pleasantness of affective touch
Psychedelics, personality and political perspectives
MDMA enhances emotional empathy and prosocial behavior
Ayahuasca in adolescence: Qualitative results
Psychedelics and connectedness
LSD acutely impairs fear recognition and enhances emotional empathy and sociality
Is Ecstasy an “Empathogen”? Effects of ±3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine on Prosocial Feelings and Identification of Emotional States in Others
Glutamatergic Model Psychoses: Prediction Error, Learning, and Inference
Therapeutic effect of increased openness: investigating mechanism of action in MDMA-assisted psychotherapy
Broadening Your Mind to Include Others: The relationship between serotonergic psychedelic experiences and maladaptive narcissism
Ayahuasca may help to improve self-compassion and self-criticism capacities
Psychedelic Experiences and Mindfulness are Associated with Improved Wellbeing
Naturalistic use of psychedelics is related to emotional reactivity and self-consciousness: The mediating role of ego-dissolution and mystical experiences
Differences in personality, cognitive abilities, illicit drug use, and white matter structural integrity between hallucinogen users and matched controls
A single psilocybin dose is associated with long-term increased mindfulness, preceded by a proportional change in neocortical 5-HT2A receptor binding
Prophylactic Ketamine Attenuates Learned Fear
Examining Psychedelic-Induced Changes in Social Functioning and Connectedness in a Naturalistic Online Sample Using the Five-Factor Model of Personality
Psychedelics as Tools for Belief Transmission. Set, Setting, Suggestibility, and Persuasion in the Ritual Use of Hallucinogens
A Semantic Scale Network analysis of the revised Mystical Experiences Questionnaire: A call for collaboration
Natural Language as a Window into the Subjective Effects and Neurochemistry of Psychedelic Drugs
Does ±3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (ecstasy) induce subjective feelings of social connection in humans? A multilevel meta-analysis
The moderating role of mystical-type experiences on the relationship between existential isolation and meaning in life
Classic Psychedelic Use and Mechanisms of Mental Health: Exploring the Mediating Roles of Spirituality and Emotion Processing on Symptoms of Anxiety, Depressed Mood, and Disordered Eating in a Community Sample
Psychedelics use predicts more positive emotional reactivity and greater self-awareness: the mediating role of ego dissolution and mystical experiences
Increased nature relatedness and decreased authoritarian political views after psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression
On Revelations and Revolutions: Drinking Ayahuasca Among Palestinians Under Israeli Occupation
Do Psychedelics Change Beliefs?
Psychedelics, sociality, and human evolution
Psychedelic drug use and schizotypy in young adults
Psychedelics not linked to mental health problems or suicidal behavior: A population study.
Recreational Psychedelic Users Frequently Encounter Complete Mystical Experiences: Trip Content and Implications for Wellbeing
Effects of ayahuasca on personality: results of two randomized, placebo-controlled trials in healthy volunteers
Recreational 3,4-methylenedioxy-N-methylamphetamine (MDMA) or ‘ecstasy’ and self-focused compassion: Preliminary steps in the development of a therapeutic psychopharmacology of contemplative practices
Use of Benefit Enhancement Strategies among 5-Methoxy-N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (5-MeO-DMT) Users: Associations with Mystical, Challenging, and Enduring Effects
From Egoism to Ecoism: Psychedelics Increase Nature Relatedness in a State-Mediated and Context-Dependent Manner
Mystical experiences occasioned by the hallucinogen psilocybin lead to increases in the personality domain of openness
Self-Reported Drug Use and Creativity: (Re)Establishing Layperson Myths
Lifetime experience with (classic) psychedelics predicts pro-environmental behavior through an increase in nature relatedness
Potential Use of Ayahuasca in Grief Therapy
Effect of psilocybin on empathy and moral decision-making
The prosocial effects of 3, 4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA): controlled studies in humans and laboratory animals
Role of the 5-HT2A receptor in acute effects of LSD on empathy and circulating oxytocin
Psychedelics alter metaphysical beliefs
Ayahuasca’s ‘afterglow’: improved mindfulness and cognitive flexibility in ayahuasca drinkers.