The effects of stereotype threat on cognitive function in ecstasy users
Jon C Cole1*,
K. Michailidou1,
L. Jerome2,
Harry R Sumnall3
1 Psychology Department, Liverpool University, Liverpool, UK.
2 Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, Sarasota, FL, USA.
3 Centre for Public Health, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK.
* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
 |
Abstract |
|---|
Stereotype threat occurs when individuals, believed to be intellectually inferior,
perform badly on cognitive tests they perceive to confirm stereotypes about them. Due to
the wide media coverage of studies purporting to show cognitive deficits in ecstasy
users it is possible that they experience stereotype threat. This study tested ecstasy
and non-ecstasy using polysubstance misusers on a variety of cognitive tests after they
had been exposed to stereotype threat. This priming consisted of exposing them to
information about the long-term effects of ecstasy which either stated that ecstasy
caused memory loss or that it did not. Ecstasy users that had been primed that ecstasy
did not cause cognitive deficits performed better than the other three groups on the
delayed portion of the prose recall task from the Rivermead Behavioural Memory Test
battery. There were no other statistically significant differences between any of the
groups on any of the other cognitive tests used. This suggests that stereotype threat
exists in ecstasy users and may be influencing their performance in experiments designed
to identify cognitive deficits. In order to prevent this occurring in future studies,
experimenters must be careful how they conduct their experiments and discuss their
results with the media.
Key Words:
ecstasy, MDMA, stereotype threat, cognition, polysubstance misuse
