Examining Psychedelic-Induced Changes in Social Functioning and Connectedness in a Naturalistic Online Sample Using the Five-Factor Model of Personality

Earlier research on serotonergic psychedelics has largely emphasised individual clinical benefits such as improvements in mood and reductions in symptoms of depression and addiction, while a smaller but growing literature has examined social and collective outcomes including cooperation, trust, and feelings of connectedness. The Five-Factor Model (FFM) of personality provides a useful framework for investigating how psychedelic use might influence social functioning at the individual level: Neuroticism (negative emotionality), Extraversion (positive affect and sociability), and Agreeableness (prosociality versus antagonism) are highlighted as particularly relevant to interpersonal and collective functioning. Prior prospective studies of psychedelic-induced personality change are limited in number and sample size and have produced mixed findings, with some reports of decreased Neuroticism and increased Extraversion, Agreeableness, or Openness but others reporting null effects; variability in samples, settings, measures, and acute experiences likely contributes to inconsistency in the literature. Doss and colleagues set out to examine whether naturalistic psychedelic use is associated with adaptive changes in personality traits related to social functioning and with perceived social connectedness, and to explore moderators of those changes. The study focused on Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Agreeableness (with Openness and Conscientiousness included for completeness) and incorporated additional measures related to Agreeableness (compassion, affective and cognitive empathy). The team also tested whether demographic factors, baseline personality, set and setting, and acute subjective experiences (e.g., mystical-type experience, emotional breakthrough) moderated trajectories of change assessed up to 4 weeks after a planned psychedelic episode. This approach used a prospective, naturalistic design to collect a larger, internet-recruited sample than many lab-based studies, allowing the investigators to examine change and potential moderators in a general population of intended psychedelic users rather than in a controlled clinical setting. The study therefore aimed to provide insight into longer-term, ecologically valid changes in social functioning-related traits and connectedness following psychedelic use outside laboratory or ceremonial contexts.

The investigators conducted a prospective, web-based naturalistic study using opportunity sampling. Inclusion criteria were age over 18, sufficient English comprehension, and intention to use a classic psychedelic (e.g., psilocybin, LSD, ayahuasca, DMT, mescaline, ibogaine) in the near future. Data were collected across five surveys timed relative to the planned psychedelic experience: 1 week before (baseline), 1 day before, 1 day after, 2 weeks after, and 4 weeks after. Primary dispositional outcomes were measured at baseline, 2 weeks, and 4 weeks post-experience. Participant flow began with N = 654 at the first survey, with progressive attrition yielding a core completer sample of N = 148 who provided data at the three main dispositional timepoints. To maximise power for some analyses, the authors also used larger subsamples of N = 249 (baseline and 2 weeks) and N = 162 (baseline and 4 weeks) where appropriate. Participants reporting low dose use (n = 39) or use of non-5-HT2A serotonergic substances (n = 7; e.g., MDMA, ketamine, ibogaine) were excluded. The team compared completers and non-completers and found a baseline difference on one brief personality item (completers were less disorganized/higher Conscientiousness), but no consistent pattern across larger subsamples. Ethical oversight was provided by Imperial College Research Ethics Committee and the Joint Research Compliance Office at Imperial College London. Recruitment was via a purpose-built website and online advertisements, with personalised email reminders sending links to the scheduled surveys. Participants supplied names and emails for scheduling but survey responses were anonymised using unique identification codes. Measures included the Ten-Item Personality Inventory (TIPI) for basic FFM domains, two Interpersonal Reactivity Index subscales (Empathic Concern, Perspective Taking), the Santa Clara Brief Compassion Scale, the Tellegen Absorption Scale (indexing components of Openness), the Social Connectedness Scale, and a graphical Relatedness measure. Validity and moderator measures comprised suggestibility, expectancy of benefit, set and setting indices, motives, baseline anxiety and depression (STAI-SF, QIDS), and acute measures administered one day post-experience: Challenging Experience Questionnaire (CEQ), Emotional Breakthrough Inventory (EBI), Mystical Experience Questionnaire (MEQ), and an approximate dosage item. The authors noted low internal consistency for some TIPI domains and therefore analysed TIPI items individually where appropriate. Analyses used linear mixed models to test change across time (baseline, 2 weeks, 4 weeks) and to examine moderators by adding fixed covariates (validity variables, predisposing factors, acute factors). Effect sizes reported included unstandardised B coefficients, within-subject dz, Cohen's ds, and marginal R2 for fixed effects. Change-score correlations between baseline and 4 weeks were used to examine covariation among outcomes. To control Type I error, the authors set a primary significance threshold of p < 0.005 and p < 0.01 for hypothesis tests, and conducted post hoc power simulations indicating power to detect small effects in many measures and small-to-medium interaction effects for moderation tests.

The principal completer sample was N = 148, with supplementary analyses in N = 249 and N = 162 subsamples. Two weeks after the psychedelic experience, significant changes were observed on selected TIPI items and social connectedness measures. Specifically, TIPI Anxious (the ‘‘Anxious, easily upset’’ item indexing Neuroticism) decreased (B = -0.49, p < 0.0001) and TIPI Critical (‘‘critical, quarrelsome’’ indexing low Agreeableness/Politeness) decreased (B = -0.47, p < 0.0001). TIPI Calm (the inverse Neuroticism item) increased modestly (B = 0.22, p = 0.006) and TIPI Extraverted increased modestly (B = 0.23, p = 0.009), although not all of these effects persisted to 4 weeks; the most robust sustained changes at 4 weeks were reductions in TIPI Anxious and TIPI Critical. Social Connectedness increased after the experience and this increase was interpreted as substantive for the Social Connectedness Scale (SCS), though the Relatedness visual measure did not remain elevated at 4 weeks. Covariation analyses (N = 162) showed that change in Social Connectedness correlated with multiple personality change scores: TIPI Anxious (r = -0.23, p = 0.003), TIPI Extraverted (r = 0.27, p < 0.0001), TIPI Critical (r = -0.22, p = 0.004), and TIPI Disorganized (r = -0.26, p = 0.001). Among personality traits that showed main effects, TIPI Anxious and TIPI Critical covaried over time (r = -0.29, p < 0.0001), suggesting linked changes in negative emotionality and interpersonal quarrelsomeness. Moderation analyses tested three blocks of moderators (validity variables, predisposing factors, acute factors). Validity-related effects showed that self-reported advanced knowledge or high psychedelic experience tended to suppress observed change: participants endorsing ‘‘advanced knowledge’’ or ‘‘high experience’’ started with higher TIPI Calm and showed less subsequent increase, whereas those denying advanced knowledge/experience showed larger gains in Calm and Social Connectedness (e.g., a one-standard-deviation decrease in reported ‘‘high psychedelic experience’’ predicted an incremental 0.34 unit increase in TIPI Calm at 4 weeks). Predisposing factors produced limited effects: lower lifetime psychedelic use amplified increases in IRI Perspective Taking (B ≈ 0.11 at 2 weeks and B ≈ 0.09 at 4 weeks), indicating that relatively inexperienced users showed greater gains in cognitive empathy. Baseline trait moderation initially appeared widespread but much of this was consistent with regression to the mean; after excluding extreme baseline scorers and applying conservative criteria, credible adaptive moderation remained for TIPI Anxious, TIPI Calm, IRI Perspective Taking, and Relatedness. Examples included large reductions in TIPI Anxious for participants high at baseline (B T1–T3 = -0.75, p < 0.0001) and increases for low-baseline TIPI Calm (B T1–T3 = 0.67, p < 0.0001), low IRI Perspective Taking (B T1–T3 = 0.21, p < 0.0001), and low Relatedness (B T1–T3 = 0.63, p < 0.0001). Acute subjective factors (challenging experience, emotional breakthrough, subscales of the MEQ, and dosage) generally did not show robust moderation of longer-term change, and the hypothesised role of mystical-type experience in amplifying trait change was not supported in this dataset. Attrition was substantial: of 741 participants who responded at any timepoint, 576 (78%) did not complete the full requisite set of surveys; the final analytic sample of completers (N = 148) thus represents 22% of early participants. Comparisons suggested a baseline difference on a brief conscientiousness item but otherwise limited systematic baseline differences in most outcomes across completers and non-completers. The authors reported power analyses indicating adequate sensitivity to detect small effects for many self-report measures and small-to-medium interaction effects for moderation analyses given the available sample sizes.

Doss and colleagues interpret the findings as evidence that naturalistic psychedelic use is associated with small but meaningful adaptive changes in dispositional traits relevant to social functioning and with increased perceived social connectedness. The most reliable effects were reductions in a TIPI item indexing Neuroticism (Anxious, easily upset) and reductions in a TIPI item indexing antagonistic interpersonal style (Critical, quarrelsome), with both effects persisting at 4 weeks. The reduction in the ‘‘critical/quarrelsome’’ item is discussed as a possible selective effect on the Politeness aspect of Agreeableness (versus Compassion), suggesting psychedelic experience may particularly attenuate antagonistic or belligerent interpersonal tendencies that are relevant to externalising pathology and certain personality disorders. The authors note that changes in Neuroticism and reductions in quarrelsomeness covaried over time (moderate correlation), which could indicate common underlying processes such as improved emotion regulation leading both to lower negative affectivity and reduced interpersonal aggression. Perceived social connectedness increased and covaried with several personality changes, but the causal directionality could not be established; the investigators outline possibilities including connectedness driving prosocial change, personality change enhancing perceived connectedness, or overlapping measurement components accounting for covariation. Moderation analyses yielded relatively few credible moderators. Baseline standing on traits showed some evidence that those with more maladaptive initial levels gained more (e.g., high baseline anxiety showing larger reductions), but much of the apparent moderation was consistent with regression to the mean and was treated cautiously. Contrary to some prior work, acute mystical-type experiences did not robustly predict longer-term trait change in this naturalistic sample. The investigators suggest several explanations for differences from prior reports, including greater heterogeneity in naturalistic use contexts, differences in measurement fidelity in online formats, and the potential that prior studies may have overstated moderator effects. The paper emphasises limitations that constrain the strength of causal inferences: absence of a control group, heavy attrition (only 22% completed all key timepoints), reliance on self-report without informant corroboration, imprecise measurement of drug type and dose, and low internal consistency for some TIPI scales leading to item-level analyses. The naturalistic design, while increasing sample size and ecological validity, means expectancy, placebo, and selection biases may contribute to observed effects. The authors therefore frame findings as preliminary and call for replication using more rigorous designs (controlled trials, informant reports, precise dosing) and more granular personality measures able to resolve aspect/facet-level changes. Finally, the authors note clinical implications suggested by the pattern of results: reductions in neuroticism and antagonistic interpersonal style, together with increases in perceived social connectedness, may point to therapeutic potential for addressing facets of interpersonal pathology and loneliness. They recommend future research to test these possibilities mechanistically, for example by examining emotion regulation as a mediator and by using ecological momentary assessment or informant-based outcomes to triangulate self-report changes.

In a naturalistic, prospectively assessed online sample, psychedelic use was associated with small but substantive decreases in indicators of Neuroticism (anxiety, emotional lability) and decreases in a marker of antagonistic interpersonal style (critical/quarrelsome), alongside increases in perceived social connectedness. Results provide preliminary evidence suggesting psychedelics may reduce elements of antagonistic externalising and ameliorate loneliness, though effects were generally modest and moderation by acute mystical experience or set and setting was limited. The authors stress that methodological limitations—particularly attrition, lack of control group, reliance on self-report, and imprecise dosing information—temper causal interpretation and call for replication with controlled designs and more granular personality measurement.