Effects of psychedelic use on authoritarian attitudes revisited.
Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) May 1, 2026 Otto Simonsson, Taylor Lyons, Joseph Marks et al.
Across three studies—a naturalistic observation, a single-arm psilocybin trial with healthy volunteers, and a randomized controlled trial comparing psilocybin to escitalopram in depressed patients—psychedelic use did not produce significant changes in authoritarian attitudes. Contrary to earlier suggestions, the evidence does not reliably show that psychedelics decrease authoritarian attitudes. Future work should use larger, more diverse samples and examine other political outcomes.