Michael Pollan’s 2018 bestseller “How to Change Your Mind” brought international attention to promising new research in psychedelics, and ignited public curiosity about the impact these substances could have on improving mental health. Six years later, however, some data suggests this curiosity may be waning.
In April, reMind released its special report, “The Evolving Perceptions of Psychedelics,” written by Psychedelic Alpha founder and reMind advisor Josh Hardman, which examined the changing public attitudes toward psychedelics over the last century.
To be clear, more people have been interested in these substances during the last decade — scientists, researchers, healthcare providers, and the public, alike — than at any other point in history. As Hardman points out in the introduction:
“We combed through literature dating back to 1966 — when Humphry Osmond and colleagues spoke to the wives of alcoholics who had tried LSD treatment — right up to the present day. As such, we can illustrate this significant uptick in studies that seek to understand attitudes towards psychedelics, which represents a trend in itself.”
Hardman also cited data from Google Books Ngram, which charts the frequencies of any set of character strings, or n-grams, found in printed sources that Google has cataloged. Looking back over the past 75 years, the public’s interest in psychedelics is now three times greater than it was during its previous peak in the 1960s and 70s.
For those working in, advocating for, or otherwise familiar with the “psychedelic renaissance,” these charts come as no surprise — and describe the contours of a hype cycle that rapidly accelerated after Pollan’s book release.
However, as a proxy for public interest, academic studies and published materials don’t offer nearly the same volume of data that web searches do. How often do Americans look online for information on psychedelics? Not nearly as often as they did two years ago. In fact, web searches that include the word “psychedelics” have dropped about 40% since their peak in Q3 2022.
Granted, the current search volume is still more than triple what it was in the early 2000s. But the recent steep decline seems to suggest an end of the 2021-2023 hype bubble.
If so, what lasting impact did it have on Americans’ opinions about psychedelics and their promise as medicines for mental health?
The most developed contemporary poll related to perceptions of psychedelics is UC Berkeley’s Psychedelics Survey, published last year. The survey asked a battery of questions to 1,500 registered voters in the United States, and provides the best look yet at today’s attitudes.
The survey’s headline finding: 61% of voters support legalizing regulated therapeutic access to psychedelics. This includes 80% of liberal voters, 66% of moderates and 45% of conservatives. The vast majority of respondents also support actions to make it easier for researchers to study psychedelics (78%) and roughly half support decriminalization for personal use and possession (49%).
As far as Americans’ interest in trying psychedelics themselves, a MorningConsult survey found that 32% of U.S. adults were interested in trying psychedelic drugs as a medical treatment for mental health issues. However, there was a striking generational gap of opinion, with 55% of Millennials expressing willingness versus just 10% of Baby Boomers.
Of course, Boomers have lived through two very different periods of peak psychedelic interest. Time will tell how Millennials attitudes will shift as psychedelics evolve.
