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Vol.:(0123456789)

Scientic Reports | (2022) 12:8352 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-12202-8

www.nature.com/scientificreports

Cannabis consumption

and prosociality

Jacob Miguel Vigil 1 * , Sarah S. Stith 2 & Tiphanie Chanel 1

The existing literature largely focuses on health risks and other pharmacodynamics of using cannabis,

with fewer investigations of other normative psychological eects from consumption among

otherwise healthy people. W e measured several basic constructs of social psychology corresponding

to the concept of prosociality among 146 healthy young adults between 18 and 25 years ( M = 18.9,

SD = 1.4) with varying detectable levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in their urine, controlling

for participant’s sex, age, ethnicity , and childhood socio-economic status. Compared to THC-free

individuals, cannabis users scored higher than non-users on validated measures of Prosocial Behaviors

( d = .34, p = .04), the Empathy Quotient ( d = .36, p < .01), Moral Harmlessness ( d = .76, p < .01) and Moral

Fairness ( d = .49, p < .01), but exhibited a lower sense of Ingroup Loyalty ( d = .33, p = .04). Relative to

THC-free, same-sex individuals, female cannabis users scored signicantly higher on measurements

of Aggression ( d s = .65 and .57, p s < .05) and male users scored higher on the Agreeableness dimension

of personality ( d = .91, p < .01).. Linear associations were found between the recency of last cannabis

usage and the Prosocial Behaviors, Empathy Quotient, Moral Harmlessness, Moral Fairness and

Agreeableness personality scores ( r s from − .24 to .38, p s < .05). The ndings suggest cannabis usage

is associated with an increased sense of prosociality and prioritization of humanitarian behaviors that

declines with time following cannabis consumption. Further research should focus on heterogeneity in

the eects of cannabis consumption across users.

Due in part to its nearly century-long designation as a n illicit substance by the federal government o f the United

States, the scientic communi ty has mostly focused on the pharmacodynamics and health risks of con suming

the Cannabi s plant, with much fewer inv estigations of its potential eects on o ther basic elements of normative

psychological functioning. For example, “ prosociality” refers to the inten tional act of advancing the well-being of

other people 1 , 2 . Prosocial behaviors, such as displays o f empathy , providing assistance t o others, and engaging in

community service, not only enhance the individual ’s social stat us, but also promote distinct health advantages 1 , 3 .

Individuals that volun tarily engage in higher rates of prosociality benet from great er physical health, lower

disease rates, higher quality of life, and longer a verage lifespans 4 – 8 . Psychologically , prosociality induces feelings

of happiness, which in turn incr ease the motivation to engage in further acts of prosocialty 9 – 12 , thereby creating

a positive behavioral health loop for the actor 13 . Ho wever, because pr osociality also entails a direct benet to a

target, which can oen result in tertiary benecence beyond the initial actor/target, pr osociality can be considered

not only essential to, b ut also an accurate metric of a society’ s overall cohesiveness and vitality 1 .

While few (if any) documented studies ha ve attempted to meas ure the association between cannabis use and

prosocial behaviors, numerous in vestigations have measur ed how using cannabis may a ect antisocial behaviors.

For example, o ne study among people with a criminal histo ry of aggression found that cannabis use pr edicted

violence and that violence in turn predicted cann abis use, leading the authors to conc lude: “co ntinued cannabis

use remained the strongest predicto r for subsequent violent conviction, ” even more so than alcohol use 14 . Among

men arrested for domestic violence, canna bis consumption has also been shown to pr edict subsequent perpetra -

tion of intimate partner violence 15 . In community samp les, self-reported cannabis consumptio n has been found

to temporally correlate wi th both physical partner violence 16 and with a greater likelihood of partner conict

and verbal aggression 17 . Cannabis withdrawal symptom s can also include increased irritability and aggression 18 ,

and withdrawal has been estimated to res ult in a 60% higher odds of past year relationshi p aggression 19 . Other

researchers have even so m uch as estimated that “ a 10% increase in cannabis (use) frequency is associated with

a 0.4% increase in the frequency of violent behavior ” 20 .

Contrasting with those ndings, other researchers ha ve concluded that prena tal and perinatal cannabis expo -

sure has a minimal (if any) eect on aggr essive behavior , and the links between postnatal cannabis use and risk

of psychosocial problems is mere ly correlational, with man y possible alternative explanation s, including selec -

tion bias, measurement im precision, preexisting or p redisposed psychological problems, and reverse dir ection

OPEN

1 Department of Psychology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, USA. 2 Department of Economics, University

of New Mexico, Albuquerque, USA. * email: vigilj@unm.edu

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