Microdosing psychedelics and its effect on creativity: Lessons learned from three double-blind placebo controlled longitudinal trials
June 14, 2021 Luisa Prochazkova, Michiel van Elk, Josephine Marschall et al. 4 citations preprint
Microdosing psychedelic truffles increased the quality of divergent thinking, measured as the ratio of original responses to total responses on the Alternative Uses Task, in a pooled analysis of three double-blind placebo-controlled trials with 175 participants. The unadjusted originality score was significantly higher only when relative dosage (dose per body weight) was considered. No effects were found on convergent thinking or other divergent-thinking scores. The effects were subtle and persisted after controlling for expectation and demographic biases. The findings underscore the importance of controlling for placebo effects and prior psychedelic experience in microdosing research.