Study shows that college students who consume marijuana have better motivation

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Using cannabis might be a good way to increase, not decrease, someone’s drive

Marijuana has long been associated with laziness and unproductiveness. Since decades ago, society has developed a very specific stereotype of the stoner. The example of the unemployed “couch potato” has always been used by educators in cannabis talks. All this has gradually come to be disproved, and a recent study is a clear example of this. Research has shown that university students who consistently interact with cannabis show signs of increased motivation compared to those who do not consume the plant.

Researchers are once again having doubts about the idea that people who smoke marijuana lack motivation. That is why they have carried out a study that proves precisely the opposite. By means of the research, they wanted to prove the stereotype by recruiting almost 50 university students (half of whom were frequent users). They were asked to participate in a series of behavioral assessments known as the Effort Expenditure for Rewards Task.

According to the researchers, previous studies on the topic have “used divergent methodology and have not controlled for key confounding variables.” Those variables were adjusted for through this new study. It was found that cannabis days in the past month and cannabis use disorder symptoms predicted the likelihood of selecting a high-effort test.

In simple terms, cannabis users were actually more likely than the control group to select different tasks indicating higher levels of motivation.

“Contrary to the amotivational syndrome hypothesis, college students using more cannabis were more likely to select the high-effort choice option, regardless of the reward magnitude, probability, and expected value of the overall reward. Although there was no significant difference between cannabis use groups, there was a medium-sized effect, lending consistent support for an association between cannabis use and greater high-effort choices,” the authors deduced.