Modelling predictors of UK undergraduates' attitudes towards smart drugs

Background: Smart drug use is increasing but we have little insight into their use. We hypothesized that use is predicted by attitudes and various factors including incremental morality and entity intelligence beliefs would be associated with positive attitudes, whilst perception of unfairness would be associated with negative attitudes. Methods: UK undergraduates completed an online survey to establish attitudes towards smart drugs, previous use and likely future use as well as measures of several factors hypothesized to predict attitudes. Results: Attitudes were found to predict previous and likely future use. Attitudes were more positive in those who believed that smart drugs were harmless and those who felt they knew enough to use them safely. By contrast, perceived unfairness was associated with negative attitudes. Conclusions: Interventions to reduce smart drug use should focus on attitudinal beliefs around potential harm and safety, as well as emphasizing the debate around unfairness.