# From "The Hidden History of Beverages" by Alexander Lukashev

## 13. What Caffeine Does to an Argument

Part One (history), chapter 13 of 14 · 4 footnotes to 4 sources
Page: https://herbalmind.bar/history/what-caffeine-does-to-an-argument/

What research says about caffeine, psychedelics and the mind — persuasion, creativity, neural growth and political views.

Questions this chapter answers:
- Does caffeine make people easier to persuade?
  Short answer: In a 2005 experiment it did — but by making people engage with the argument more thoroughly, not by making them docile.
- Does caffeine help creativity?
  Short answer: In a 2020 trial of 80 people, 200 mg improved convergent thinking, solving the problem in front of them, and did nothing for divergent thinking.
- What do studies actually show about psilocybin and the brain?
  [The answer is in the book](https://books.apple.com/book/id6756108723)
- Is it true that caffeine makes people compliant and psychedelics make them free?
  [The answer is in the book](https://books.apple.com/book/id6756108723)

Short answers only. The full account, with its sources, is in chapter 13 of the book — https://books.apple.com/book/id6756108723

Sources:
- Martin, Pearl Y., Jenny Laing, Robin Martin and Melanie Mitchell. “Caffeine, Cognition, and Persuasion: Evidence for Caffeine Increasing the Systematic Processing of Persuasive Messages.” Journal of Applied Social Psychology 35, no. 1 (2005): 160–182. [DOI 10.1111/j.1559-1816.2005.tb02098.x](https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2005.tb02098.x).
- Zabelina, Darya L. and Paul J. Silvia. “Percolating Ideas: The Effects of Caffeine on Creative Thinking and Problem Solving.” Consciousness and Cognition 79 (2020): 102899. [DOI 10.1016/j.concog.2020.102899](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2020.102899).
- Shao, Ling-Xiao, Clara Liao, Ian Gregg et al. “Psilocybin Induces Rapid and Persistent Growth of Dendritic Spines in Frontal Cortex in vivo.” Neuron 109, no. 16 (2021): 2535–2544.e4. [DOI 10.1016/j.neuron.2021.06.008](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2021.06.008).
- Lyons, Taylor and Robin L. Carhart-Harris. “Increased Nature Relatedness and Decreased Authoritarian Political Views after Psilocybin for Treatment-Resistant Depression.” Journal of Psychopharmacology 32, no. 7 (2018): 811–819. [DOI 10.1177/0269881117748902](https://doi.org/10.1177/0269881117748902).

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These are chapter cards — what each chapter covers, with a few short answers and the book’s free pages — not the chapters themselves.
Apple Books, with a free sample: https://books.apple.com/book/id6756108723
Other stores: https://books2read.com/u/mqlAwO