Perceived Quality-of-Life Impact of Psychedelic Experiences and Its Predictors Across Four Harmonized Enthusiast- and Platform-Recruited Samples
(2026) PSYP01 20261Department of Psychology
- Abstract
- Psychedelic experiences are widely reported to leave a lasting impact on quality of life: positive for most, negligible for some, negative for few. Still, the magnitude, distribution, and predictors of that impact have varied considerably between samples. Four independent samples (N = 2,652) were harmonized and analyzed in parallel. Three were Scandinavian, recruited through psychedelic-interest channels. One was U.S., recruited through the general research platform Prolific. The first aim was to map perceived quality-of-life impact (retrospective assessment of how one index experience affected psychological well-being and social relationships) across samples. The second was to test whether established predictors generalized: motivation... (More)
- Psychedelic experiences are widely reported to leave a lasting impact on quality of life: positive for most, negligible for some, negative for few. Still, the magnitude, distribution, and predictors of that impact have varied considerably between samples. Four independent samples (N = 2,652) were harmonized and analyzed in parallel. Three were Scandinavian, recruited through psychedelic-interest channels. One was U.S., recruited through the general research platform Prolific. The first aim was to map perceived quality-of-life impact (retrospective assessment of how one index experience affected psychological well-being and social relationships) across samples. The second was to test whether established predictors generalized: motivation for use, and acute mystical and challenging experiences. Covariates were age, gender, and prior use. Impact was, on balance, positive throughout. Magnitude and distribution nonetheless diverged by recruitment context. The three enthusiast samples were homogeneous despite three countries, languages, and instruments: all markedly positive, with over four in five reporting positive impact. The U.S. Prolific sample sat far lower: fewer than half reported positive impact, and negative impact was several times more frequent. The predictors, by contrast, proved consistent. Growth-oriented motivation and mystical experience predicted more positive impact in every sample, as did prior use wherever modeled. What a naturalistic study reports about perceived impact appears to depend heavily on recruitment context. What it reports about predictors appears comparatively robust to that choice. Should that asymmetry replicate, the enthusiast-recruited literature would remain substantially usable for what predicts lasting impact, and substantially unusable for what impact to expect among users generally. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9249688
- author
- Bendz, Jonathan LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- PSYP01 20261
- year
- 2026
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- psychedelics, quality of life, generalizability, selection bias, data harmonization
- language
- English
- id
- 9249688
- date added to LUP
- 2026-09-09 16:33:46
- date last changed
- 2026-09-09 16:33:46
@misc{9249688,
abstract = {{Psychedelic experiences are widely reported to leave a lasting impact on quality of life: positive for most, negligible for some, negative for few. Still, the magnitude, distribution, and predictors of that impact have varied considerably between samples. Four independent samples (N = 2,652) were harmonized and analyzed in parallel. Three were Scandinavian, recruited through psychedelic-interest channels. One was U.S., recruited through the general research platform Prolific. The first aim was to map perceived quality-of-life impact (retrospective assessment of how one index experience affected psychological well-being and social relationships) across samples. The second was to test whether established predictors generalized: motivation for use, and acute mystical and challenging experiences. Covariates were age, gender, and prior use. Impact was, on balance, positive throughout. Magnitude and distribution nonetheless diverged by recruitment context. The three enthusiast samples were homogeneous despite three countries, languages, and instruments: all markedly positive, with over four in five reporting positive impact. The U.S. Prolific sample sat far lower: fewer than half reported positive impact, and negative impact was several times more frequent. The predictors, by contrast, proved consistent. Growth-oriented motivation and mystical experience predicted more positive impact in every sample, as did prior use wherever modeled. What a naturalistic study reports about perceived impact appears to depend heavily on recruitment context. What it reports about predictors appears comparatively robust to that choice. Should that asymmetry replicate, the enthusiast-recruited literature would remain substantially usable for what predicts lasting impact, and substantially unusable for what impact to expect among users generally.}},
author = {{Bendz, Jonathan}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Perceived Quality-of-Life Impact of Psychedelic Experiences and Its Predictors Across Four Harmonized Enthusiast- and Platform-Recruited Samples}},
year = {{2026}},
}