Analyzing the Effects of Psychedelic Experience on Social Connectedness with a New Measure: The Aliveness Task

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of psychedelics on social connectedness by offering a survey to 455 individuals of various demographics. Given previous research and the importance of this topic in mental health realms, this study aimed to provide a new measure focused on social connectedness referred to as the Aliveness Task. With this measure, we asked participants to rate photorealistic images of people, animals, landscapes, and objects. We analyzed data according to five demographics: (1) age, (2) gender, (3) education level, (4) religious views, and (5) previous psychedelic experience. We hypothesized that this task would yield results that reflect those of more established measures used in previous psychological and psychedelic research. While more statistical measures are needed to validate this new measure, we discovered an association between previous psychedelic experience and stronger feelings of connectedness across most demographics. Participants were recruited using the participant server hosted by the Faculty of Psychology at the University of Zurich and the newsletter of our research group. A self- report questionnaire was used to capture information about participants. This study provides findings that may indicate psychedelics’ significant ability to increase feelings of social connectedness. This study is the first to use this novel measure, adapted by the University of Zurich.