Tripping during a political convention was linked to more support for political violence in a recent psychedelic study

People whose most intense psychedelic experience fell on the Fourth of July showed a decrease in support for partisan violence over a two-month period, compared with people who used psychedelics on other dates, according to research published in Psychedelic Medicine. Exploratory analyses found the opposite pattern for psychedelic use during the 2024 party conventions and closer to Election Day. The findings suggest that the broader cultural and political moment may shape what follows a psychedelic experience.

Psychedelics, such as psilocybin and LSD, are substances that alter perception, mood, and cognitive processes by interacting with serotonin receptors in the brain. Over the past several years, experts have expressed concern about support for partisan violence, which refers to the belief that physical harm or force is an acceptable way to advance political goals or defeat political opponents. While a study covered by PsyPost in 2024 found that Americans’ support for political violence declined between 2022 and 2023, it remains a heavily studied topic due to its potential impact on democratic stability.

The psychological effects of psychedelics are thought to depend heavily on context. The authors of a 2018 review argued that a user’s mindset and surroundings strongly shape what a psychedelic experience produces, so the same drug can lead to very different outcomes in different situations.

Extending this idea, the authors of a 2021 paper argued that psychedelics do not automatically make people more peaceful or politically liberal. Instead, they proposed that these substances act as magnifiers of a user’s broader cultural and social environment. This perspective suggests that national events and collective moods could influence a person’s psychedelic experience.

This idea raises the possibility that shared cultural moments might steer the psychological effects of psychedelics in different directions. For example, a 2018 study showed that reminding people of a shared American identity reduces hostility between rival political parties.

“There’s reasonably good evidence that psychedelic outcomes depend on context – what researchers call set and setting,” lead study author Otto Simonsson told PsyPost. Set refers to a person’s mindset and expectations, and setting to the physical and social environment. Simonsson is an assistant professor at the Center for Social Sustainability within the Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society at the Karolinska Institutet. “Building on this idea, some scholars have suggested that the broader sociocultural context might matter as well, but that idea is difficult to test empirically,” he explained.

Simonsson and his colleagues aimed to test whether taking psychedelics during specific national events is associated with changes in a person’s willingness to endorse partisan violence. “One possible approach is to use dates that carry a shared cultural meaning, and the Fourth of July is a reasonable candidate, since it’s broadly associated with unity and collective celebration,” Simonsson noted. “If the wider cultural context does shape what follows from a psychedelic experience, then using on that date, with that as the backdrop, might be associated with different changes than using on an ordinary date. That was the basic logic.”

To investigate this, the research team used a longitudinal observational design to track changes over time. They recruited a large sample of U.S. adults aged 18 to 50 on Prolific, an age range chosen because earlier research suggested it would include more psychedelic users. The data came from two waves, collected in the summers of 2023 and 2024. The participants did not know the study was specifically about psychedelics when they signed up.

During the initial survey, 21,990 participants answered questions about their demographic background, including age, gender identity, and political affiliation. They also completed a questionnaire designed to measure their baseline support for partisan violence. About two months later, 12,345 of these initial participants returned to complete a follow-up survey.

In this second survey, participants reported whether they had used classic psychedelics during the two-month period. If they had, they provided the exact date and estimated the dose of their most intense psychedelic experience. They also answered the same questions about partisan violence to see if their attitudes had shifted.

The researchers statistically accounted for a range of other factors. They controlled for age, gender identity, political affiliation, prior psychedelic use, survey year, and the use of other substances, including alcohol, cannabis, and stimulants, as well as the participants’ educational attainment and religious beliefs.

Out of the thousands of people who completed the follow-up, 505 participants reported using psychedelics during the two-month window. Within this smaller group, 19 individuals noted that their most intense experience happened on the Fourth of July. The remaining 486 participants had their most intense experience on a different date.

The results indicated that people whose most intense psychedelic experience fell on the Fourth of July showed a larger decrease in support for partisan violence than people whose most intense experience fell on other dates, a difference of about 0.7 standard deviations, though it rests on only 19 people. Participants who did not use psychedelics at all also showed a greater decrease than the other-date psychedelic users.

The scientists also examined other dates with intense political focus using the 2024 data. Exploratory analyses showed that taking psychedelics on the date of the July 2024 assassination attempt on Donald Trump was associated with a decrease in support for partisan violence. This particular decrease was reported almost exclusively by Republican respondents. However, this finding rests on very few Republicans, as about four in five psychedelic users in the sample identified as Democrats.

In contrast, the context of an upcoming election was associated with a different pattern. Using psychedelics during the dates of the Democratic or Republican National Conventions was associated with an increase in support for partisan violence. This increase appeared to be stronger among people who were exposed that day to their own party’s leaders describing the other side as a threat. Similarly, having a most intense psychedelic experience on a date closer to Election Day was linked to increased support for violence.

The authors interpret this pattern as consistent with the idea that psychedelics may amplify the prevailing mood of the moment. A unifying holiday might soften partisan hostility, while a divisive political convention might heighten animosity. An earlier analysis from the same research team’s survey, covered by PsyPost in 2025, similarly found that outcomes varied with context: psychedelic use in illegal settings was linked to increases in psychotic and manic symptoms over two months, while use in legal or decriminalized settings was not.

Simonsson said the main takeaway is “possibly that psychedelics might not push people in any single direction.” “In our data, participants whose most intense psychedelic experience fell on the Fourth of July showed a decrease in support for partisan violence over the study period, while those whose experience fell during the party conventions or closer to Election Day showed an increase,” he added.

However, the researchers note the need for caution when interpreting the results. “That said, this is one study with a small number of relevant participants, so I’d hold the takeaway loosely,” Simonsson cautioned.

As with all research, there are other caveats to consider. The study observed behaviors as they naturally occurred rather than assigning participants to take psychedelics, so the findings cannot confirm that the dates themselves directly caused the changes in political attitudes. Only the Fourth of July test was preregistered. The analyses regarding the assassination attempt, political conventions, and Election Day were exploratory, with no statistical correction for running several tests.

The number of participants who used psychedelics on specific dates was quite small. The researchers also skipped one follow-up analysis for the assassination attempt date because the groups were too small. The high dropout rate between the first and second surveys also introduces the possibility of skewed data. Exposure to the events was not measured directly; participants were asked whether they celebrated the Fourth of July, but not whether they closely followed the conventions, the assassination attempt, or the election.

Because the researchers recruited online and deliberately targeted an age range likely to include psychedelic users, the results might not represent the general public. Participants also reported their own substance use and political views, which can sometimes result in inaccurate answers if people want to present themselves favorably.

The study, “Politically Salient Events May Modulate Effects of Naturalistic Psychedelic Use on Support for Partisan Violence,” was authored by Otto Simonsson, Peter S. Hendricks, Walter Osika, and Simon B. Goldberg.