In a confirmation of something we’ve all know intuitively for quite a while, a study set out to quantify “pothead logic”.
Specifically when it comes to entrepreneurs. To study the effect of marijuana on idea creators, researchers had 254 entrepreneurs come with a bunch of venture ideas based on virtual reality. They had three minutes, and afterwards two “expert raters” rated the ideas based on originality and feasibility.
The results were predictable, with originality scoring higher with marijuana smokers and feasibility scoring lower. However, none of the entrepreneurs were high during the study, it was more about routine pot smoking and how that effects long term creativity than it was about being high. Non-users were described as those that have smoked less than five times in their life and not at all within the past month, and users were those that had more than five times, and at least twice in the past month.
“Entrepreneurial passion for inventing appears to play a role in channeling cannabis users toward idea originality but away from idea feasibility,” the study says.
“Clearly there are pros and cons to using cannabis that deserve to be investigated further,” Benjamin Warnick, one of the study authors said. “As the wave of cannabis legalization continues across the country, we need to shed light on the actual effects of cannabis not only in entrepreneurship but in other areas of business as well.”
Read more about the study at Marijuana Moment.
