Psilocybin Legalization in the United States and Psychological Reactance: ATest of Evidence Uncertainty, Controlling Language, and an Ambiguous Call to Action

Psilocybin legalization continues to surface among policymakers considering the potential benefits (e.g., medicinal) offered by this substance. To better understand audience resistance to legalizing psilocybin, psy chological reactance theory was employed to weigh the effectiveness of evidence uncertainty, controlling language, and specific call to action in relation to policy support. Results revealed a negative association betweenscientific certaintyand freedom threat perceptions. As expected, freedomthreat was positivelyasso ciated with reactance, which in turn was negatively associated with intentions to support psilocybin legal ization. Against expectations, no relationship between controlling language emerged with freedom threat perceptions. The findings are discussed with an emphasis on the theoretical and practical implications and the role of reactance when promoting the legalization of a currently banned substance.