For Michael (or others): Do you think there might be a connection between (responsible) Psychedelic use and altruism? And if so, do you think this is a promising research avenue or future application for psychedelics?
In How to Change Your Mind, you reference the sense of ‘oneness’ and global community that often follows a psychedelic experience. I imagine these same feelings motivate many altruists, so psychedelics’ ability to dial them up could potentially lead to some inspiring ethical change; the change that has motivated many players in the colorful history of Psychedelics. From personal experience starting student organizations for both EA and Psychedelic Research advocacy, I’ve perceived an above-random overlap, but I’m not sure if there’s a causal relationship– and if so which comes first– or if there’s selection effects at play. Really exciting to see this AMA!
This is a fascinating question but it is an empirical question meaning we need to test it with data. My guess is that at least among some people psychedelics lead to increased altruism. But there are likely many cases where there is no change, and cases where altruism is decreased. And this likely depends on many factors other than the psychedelic. We did find claims of increased long terms altruism in high dose compared to trivial dose psilocybin under double blind conditions as part of a “spiritual practices” program backdrop ( https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5772431/ ). However we need more work to see if this holds up to more behavioral evidence. I will say the picture on effects on authoritarianism is inconclusive and so far this is not good evidence for this, as I described in this paper with David Yaden: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/theres-no-good-evidence-that-psychedelics-can-change-your-politics-or-religion/ .
I think we need more research on these questions. There is some preliminary indications that a single psilocybin experience increase measures of “nature connectedness” and decreases tolerance for authoritarianism. But I wonder about the samples—people positively inclined in these directions already. We need to test the drugs on anti-environmentalists and authoritarians to see if they have a reall effect or just strengthen predispositions.
I would love to see a trial of healthy normals to see if it increases altruistic behavior—how about a trial of two groups of philanthropists, one gets high dose psilocybin and the other not, and which group increases its giving over the following year? do I have any volunteers?
For Michael (or others): Do you think there might be a connection between (responsible) Psychedelic use and altruism? And if so, do you think this is a promising research avenue or future application for psychedelics?
In How to Change Your Mind, you reference the sense of ‘oneness’ and global community that often follows a psychedelic experience. I imagine these same feelings motivate many altruists, so psychedelics’ ability to dial them up could potentially lead to some inspiring ethical change; the change that has motivated many players in the colorful history of Psychedelics. From personal experience starting student organizations for both EA and Psychedelic Research advocacy, I’ve perceived an above-random overlap, but I’m not sure if there’s a causal relationship– and if so which comes first– or if there’s selection effects at play. Really exciting to see this AMA!
This is a fascinating question but it is an empirical question meaning we need to test it with data. My guess is that at least among some people psychedelics lead to increased altruism. But there are likely many cases where there is no change, and cases where altruism is decreased. And this likely depends on many factors other than the psychedelic. We did find claims of increased long terms altruism in high dose compared to trivial dose psilocybin under double blind conditions as part of a “spiritual practices” program backdrop ( https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5772431/ ). However we need more work to see if this holds up to more behavioral evidence. I will say the picture on effects on authoritarianism is inconclusive and so far this is not good evidence for this, as I described in this paper with David Yaden: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/theres-no-good-evidence-that-psychedelics-can-change-your-politics-or-religion/ .
I think we need more research on these questions. There is some preliminary indications that a single psilocybin experience increase measures of “nature connectedness” and decreases tolerance for authoritarianism. But I wonder about the samples—people positively inclined in these directions already. We need to test the drugs on anti-environmentalists and authoritarians to see if they have a reall effect or just strengthen predispositions.
I would love to see a trial of healthy normals to see if it increases altruistic behavior—how about a trial of two groups of philanthropists, one gets high dose psilocybin and the other not, and which group increases its giving over the following year? do I have any volunteers?