Perceived Quality-of-Life Impact of Psychedelic Experiences and Its Predictors Across Four Harmonized Enthusiast- and Platform-Recruited Samples
Year: 2026
Type: dissertation
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: English
Subfield: Clinical Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funder: Lunds Universitet
OpenAlex ID: W7212332535