Past Psychedelic Use Predicts Divergent Thinking

Can psychedelic use impact creativity and divergent thinking?

This study aimed to examine whether people with a history of psychedelic use differ from non-users and non-psychedelic drug users on measures of divergent thinking, cognitive reflection, and insight-based problem solving. The researchers sought to test whether previously reported links between psychedelics and creativity extend to objective cognitive measures, rather than relying solely on subjective reports of insight or creativity.

Key findings:

• Individuals with a history of psychedelic use scored higher on divergent thinking tasks than both non-drug users and users of other drugs, suggesting an association with greater idea generation and cognitive flexibility.

• Psychedelic users did not perform better on cognitive reflection tasks, indicating no advantage in analytical reasoning or the ability to override intuitive but incorrect responses.

• Psychedelic users did not show superior insight problem-solving performance, meaning they were not more likely to solve problems through accurate "aha" moments.

• There was no evidence of greater insight accuracy among psychedelic users, suggesting that generating novel ideas does not necessarily translate into better judgment or more correct solutions.

• The association was specific to divergent thinking, rather than reflecting a broad enhancement of cognition or problem-solving ability.

• Because the study was observational and cross-sectional, causality cannot be inferred. The findings are consistent with either:

  • psychedelic use being associated with greater divergent thinking, or

  • individuals who are naturally more creative, open, or cognitively flexible being more likely to use psychedelics.

Abstract

Psychedelics have shown potential in treating a range of mental health conditions, yet far less is known about their impact on creativity. This study examined three components of creativity: divergent thinking, cognitive reflection, and insight in a large sample (N = 5,905) from the Great British Intelligence Test.

We compared performance between individuals with past psychedelic use and those without such use. Psychedelic users scored significantly higher on divergent thinking than both non-drug users and drug users who had not used psychedelics. However, they did not score higher on measures of cognitive reflection, number of insights, or insight accuracy. These findings suggest that naturalistic psychedelic use may be associated with enhanced divergent thinking, but not enhanced insight-related performance.

Future research should aim to establish causality through prospective designs and controlled studies incorporating long-term follow-up, biological data, and personality structure assessment.

Pope, G. J., Timmermann, C., Trender, W., Hellyer, P. J., Bălăeţ, M., & Laukkonen, R. E. (2026). Past Psychedelic Use Predicts Divergent Thinking. arXiv preprint. DOI: 10.48550/arXiv.2601.04380. Read Paper

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