Could using cannabis make you a better person? That’s the suggestion of a new study published in the journal Scientific Reports, which found that people who had recently used cannabis exhibited more “prosocial behavior”—such as displaying empathy, helping others, and engaging in community service—than people who hadn’t.
In the study, researchers asked subjects to complete various psychological tests encompassing traits like empathy, trust, and prosocial behaviors. They also tested the urine of those participants for evidence of THC, the active ingredient in cannabis.
The scientists found that using cannabis may make people less self-centered and more focused on helping others and protecting them from harm. Male cannabis users exhibited more agreeableness than non-users.
The researchers also found that the personality differences between cannabis users and non-users were associated with the time since cannabis was used, suggesting the effects are temporary. “The transience of the effects supports that cannabis is triggering behavioral and perceptual changes rather than that cannabis users and non-user differ fundamentally in their baseline approaches to social interactions,” said study co-author Sarah Stith of the UNM department of economics.
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