Most Americans Overestimate the Harms of Psychedelics

The XandY Poll | U.S. National Adult Population | Nov. 2023

Matthew Goldberg, Abel Gustafson, & Carly Wolfer
May 2024

Much evidence shows that psychedelics such as LSD and psilocybin mushrooms are remarkably safe and non-addictive. When compared to other controlled substances such as tobacco, alcohol, and many others, study after study places LSD and psilocybin as either the least or among the least harmful. In fact, some psychedelics have substantial benefits and therapeutic uses.

However, many people overestimate the harmfulness of psychedelics. In our recent nationally representative survey, we asked American adults to rate how harmful they think each of several substances are. Overall, 68% rated LSD as at least “moderately” harmful and about 1 in 5 Americans (19%) think LSD is more harmful than tobacco.

The figure above shows that psilocybin mushrooms are viewed by the public as much less harmful than LSD, indicating clear differences in how these substances are culturally perceived. Still, nearly half of Americans (46%) rate the harms of psilocybin as “moderate” or greater.

These beliefs run contrary to the best current medical evidence. For example, according to the World Health Organization tobacco use kills around 8 million people each year, but in contrast it is virtually impossible to take a fatal dose of LSD. Psychedelics are certainly not without risk, and it is certainly not the case that all psychedelics have the same risk profile. However, our study does show that the actual risks are dramatically overestimated in the mind of the American public.

The Communication Opportunity

Across many important issues, we often find that simple misconceptions, when widespread, create a giant barrier to progress. The findings from our study spotlight important opportunities to correct the record on psychedelics. The success of efforts to make psychedelics available for therapeutic and/or personal use is largely dependent on overcoming these barriers in public perception.

Another key opportunity becomes evident when we examine Americans’ views of relatively more obscure psychedelic substances such as ibogaine or ayahuasca: the majority of Americans say they don’t know enough to rate the harms of these substances. This knowledge gap is important because it means people have less crystallized views about these substances, and hence it will be easier to educate people about them, compared to substances like LSD that have a long and fraught history.

If we plan to reverse the harmful approaches of the war on drugs—while increasing people’s access to the care they need—we need to establish a widespread evidence-based understanding of their risks and benefits.

About The XandY Poll

Survey Methodology

The design, data collection, analysis, and reporting of this national survey were performed by XandY, an independent research and strategy firm. Exhaustive details of the scientific methodology of The XandY Poll can be found here. The following briefly summarizes key points of interest.

The survey responses were fielded from November 18 – November 21, 2023 using online recruitment methods to sample adult residents of the United States (N = 1,527). This survey used a nested quota sampling strategy to match U.S. Census proportions of age, income, race and ethnicity, gender, and political party affiliation. To further ensure the insights reported from these data closely resemble the U.S. population, the sample was weighted to match U.S. Census benchmarks.

Percentage points are rounded to the nearest whole number. When sums of two proportions are reported in text (e.g., “63% of U.S. adults say they either “strongly” or “somewhat” support…") we round the total value after summing. Sometimes, this creates an apparent error. For example, 41.4% + 20.4% = 61.8% which rounds to 62%.  But in the figure, the values are individually rounded (41% and 20%) so it might appear that 41% + 20% = 62%.

Margin of Error

Proportion statistics regarding the full national sample have an average margin of error of +/- 2 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. The margin of error in subgroups is determined by the subgroup size.

Citation

This paper and the insights it reports may be cited as:

Goldberg, M. H., Gustafson, A., & Wolfer, C. (2024). Most Americans Overestimate the Harms of Psychedelics. XandY. New Haven, CT. Retrieved from: https://www.xandyanalytics.com/americans-overestimate-harms-of-psychedelics