Nowadays , people refer to it mainly as pot as other names too , of course . And the title of the paper is inspired by Mary Jane Mechanisms underlying enhanced creativity in cannabis users . And I really like this study for a couple of reasons .
And that combination of features , openness to experience and what that openness to new experiences brings enhances the convergent and divergent thinking that is characteristic of the creative process . So in short , cannabis increases creativity , but through changes in personality that tap into the creative process rather than directly impacting the neural circuits that for instance , turn on creativity . And I have to say this study is really important because by exploring cannabis users , not while under the influence of cannabis , they were able to tap into this very important what I believe to be fact because if you think about a study in which you would have one group using cannabis and another group not using cannabis , and then you give them some task that taps into creativity , you will see effects and very likely you'll see effects where cannabis might even increase divergent , convergent thinking and creativity that those results have actually been published many times before .
Well , fortunately , there's an entirely distinct set of literature that has taken all the other literature into consideration and here's where we arrive . So there's a really nice study that explored creativity in cannabis users and we will provide a link to this study . Um First author is Emily Lafrance and the title of the paper uh Somewhat amusing uh in its own right , which is it starts with a question uh inspired by Mary Jane .
So right now , I can imagine that all the cannabis users are , are , are cheering . Yes , cannabis increases creativity makes people more creative than they would be otherwise . Well , this is interesting , we have to ask ourselves how that was accomplished and it turns out that one of the major ways in which it was accomplished is that cannabis users , even if they are not under the influence of cannabis are far more open to novel ideas .
And they have a more explorative and sort of reduced anxiety or I should say lower anxiety mode of thinking when they explore novel ideas , which is essential for divergent thinking . So they observe both enhanced divergent and convergent creative type thinking in cannabis users and the source of that they conclude is , and here I'll just quote cannabis users , higher levels of openness to experience are responsible for their enhanced self reported creativity and convergent thinking test performance . So it's not necessarily that cannabis is increasing the capacity of the brain areas that are associated with creativity , but rather are cannabis appears to be increasing in openness and probably doing that in part through lowering anxiety in particular people .
