Title: Social Rewards: A powerful moderator of drug use and drug effects?
Funder: Economic and Social Research Council

Abstract: Recreational drug use is a global phenomenon, as are the cultures around them. The dance culture of 'ecstacy' use that arose in the 1980s and 90s continues to this day. Similarly, society associates psychedelic drugs with spirituality, free love and the hippy movement. While the specifics of different drug cultures may have shifted over time, what remains constant is the fact that these drugs are consumed in social groups, and that members of these groups strongly identify with each other and their culture. The perceived harms of drug-use, and societal implications, have been studied for many years. However, one aspect of drug use remains largely unexplored: the effect of recreational drugs on social behaviour and interactions during the drug experience itself. This is a vital area to address; with these experiences taking place in affliative social groupings, one cannot hope to fully understand the motivation and implication of drug use without exploring its effects on social interactive behaviour. Trust, fairness, cooperation, reciprocity and punishment - these are concepts which underlie behaviour in a number of social situations. Different people have different expectations as to how others will act in relation to these concepts, which form integral parts of our personalities and social preferences. During my PhD I demonstrated that two of the most popular recreational drugs, MDMA ('ecstacy') and Psilocybin ('magic mushrooms'), had profound effects on how people behaved when playing economic games, live, with interacting partners. These games rely on assessing the fairness and trustworthiness of the other players, and deciding how cooperative to be with them. I showed that some of these changes were related to changes in how people value social rewards. This programme will aim to establish the relationship between these social effects of recreational drugs and how people value different types of social interaction, social rewards. Furthermore, it will investigate how differences in social reward sensitivity may be related to lifetime drug use. This is working on two hypotheses: First, that the effect of recreational drugs on social behaviour will depend on trait social reward sensitivity; second,that the likelihood to engage in recreational drug use depends on social reward sensitivity. I will analyse data collected during my PhD using computational modelling techniques. Computational modelling allows one to precisely identify and investigate individual differences in the mechanisms underlying behaviour. Particularly relevant to the investigation of social interactive behaviour, learning models allow the examination of changes in behaviour over time, such as learning whether to trust a given individual over repeated interactions. Being able to establish how these mechanisms are effected during drug experiences may provide significant insight into a key motivator of drug use. I will collect new data in order to examine the relationship between how people process social rewards in everyday life and the likelihood of engaging in drug-use. Together these analyses will establish how social reward sensitivity affects the drug experience itself, and how it motivates drug use. I will develop a workshop which aims to inform the general public, in an evidence-based manner, of the effects of drugs on social interactions. In addition to my own research, I will draw upon that of my peers to highlight misinformation in the media, as well as discuss the importance of harm reduction. There has been a vast increase in the scientific study of recreational drugs. Research is examining how the compounds effect neural processes, as well as behaviour. Furthermore there are a number of active research programmes examining the potential of these drugs to treat mental health disorders. It is vital to ensure that the results of these research programmes are discussed in an open, unbiased manner, and I am uniquely placed to do so.


Research activity codes: 2.3 PSYCHOLOGICAL, SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC FACTORS
Health categories: MENTAL HEALTH