A unifying account of how humans acquire shared cultural habits, norms, and expectations is developed by integrating the variational free-energy principle from theoretical neuroscience with concepts of cultural evolution and implicit learning. Humans construct social niches that provide epistemic resources called cultural affordances. Through immersive participation in patterned cultural practices, agents learn by inferring what other people expect—a process termed "thinking through other minds" (TTOM). This makes information about others' expectations the primary statistical regularity humans use to predict and organize behavior. The model aims to resolve debates in cognitive science between internalist and externalist accounts of theory of mind and between dynamical and representational views of enactivism.
A placebo can produce psychedelic-like experiences in some people when the setting and expectations are carefully arranged. In a 4-hour group study with music, colored lights, and visual projections, 33 students took a placebo described as a psilocybin-like drug. Many reported no changes, but others showed effects as strong as those from moderate or high psilocybin doses. Most (61%) verbally reported some effect, such as seeing paintings move or reshape, feeling heavy, or experiencing a "come down" and then another "wave." Context and expectations can mimic psychedelic effects even without the drug.
Psychedelic substances like DMT, psilocybin, and LSD are being tested as treatments for depression, anxiety, and substance use disorder. This thematic issue examines cultural assumptions, political dimensions, and clinical and ethical implications of this renewed interest. The authors argue that psychedelics can be seen as "active super-placebos" that enhance therapeutic processes by increasing suggestibility and the influence of non-specific factors. Rather than merely freeing perception, psychedelic experiences involve meaning-making and enculturation into contextually mediated beliefs and behaviors, which can install novel constraints with potentially maladaptive consequences. The importance of clinical and epistemic integrity in framing psychedelic therapies is highlighted.
Delusional ideation, or false beliefs, is linked to social factors such as feeling the presence of unseen others, loneliness, social anxiety, and empathy. A survey of 2,200 healthy adults during the COVID-19 pandemic found that all measured aspects of social imagery were positively associated with delusional ideation. The strongest predictor was felt presence, followed by loneliness, social fear, and empathic concern. The findings suggest that delusions may arise from common mechanisms with social imagination, and that alterations in social cognition contribute to delusional thinking.