What people think of when they hear the term “psychedelics.”
The XandY Poll | U.S. Adult Population
Matthew Goldberg & Abel gustafson
march 2025
The mental models we hold shape our reality. To some, "exercise" means joyful play while to others it means grueling torture. To some, "cooking" means artful creation while to others it means a tedious chore. To some, "meditation" is a spiritual practice, to others a science-backed stress-reduction tool, and to others it conjures associations of snake oil, quacks, and woo.
When communicating about any of those topics with others, the mental models held by the audience determines how they will interpret new information, and whether we will be able to engage in open dialogue instead of talking past each other.
Concept Associations for Psychedelics
As we try to make progress to decriminalize and secure personal and therapeutic access to psychedelics, we need to understand and adjust for the mental models that underpin public opinion. To gain deeper insight into how people think about psychedelics, in our nationally representative survey of American adults (N = 1,527) we posed a simple question: “When you think of psychedelics, what is the first word or phrase that comes to your mind?” The findings are both illuminating and instructive for those of us working on engaging with the public on this issue.
To analyze the data, we first consolidated minor differences (e.g., “drug” and “illegal drugs” both became “drugs”) and then sorted each of these smaller topics into higher-order themes (i.e., “substances”, “effects”, “positive”, “negative”, “other”). In the figure below, the main themes are shown as distinct colors, with the size of each section representing how often it occurred.
Our data show that only 3% of responses were explicitly positive (e.g., “medicine” or “good”), while far more had negative connotations.
The top five most common responses—mushrooms (20%), LSD (19%), nothing (14%), drugs (12%), and tripping (10%)—accounted for the overwhelming majority (75%) of the coded responses. The fact that “mushrooms” and “LSD” top the list is hardly surprising given historical context and how much people have heard about them.
So what does this mean for how people view psychedelics? It’s probably not great news: our research shows that about 46% of Americans perceive psilocybin mushrooms as at least “moderately harmful,” while 68% hold similar views about LSD. When the first words that come to mind are steeped in historical stigma and negative perceptions, progress on this issue comes with significant psychological roadblocks.
An interesting result is that 14% of respondents answered “nothing.” This might suggest a segment of the population that is disengaged or indifferent. In many ways, this might be a unique opportunity to engage with an audience that doesn’t feel too strongly about psychedelics in either direction.
So what?
Decades of political rhetoric, cultural references, and media portrayals have built the mental architecture through which psychedelics are perceived—often containing fear, stigma, or skepticism. To effectively shift these perceptions, we have to first map these hidden mental landscapes, and then engage with people in a way that’s grounded in empathy, clarity, and evidence.
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.
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. (2025). What People Think of When They Hear the Term “Psychedelics”. XandY. New Haven, CT. Retrieved from: https://www.xandyanalytics.com/what-psychedelics-brings-to-mind