High Expectations: An Observational Study of Programming and Cannabis Intoxication

Anecdotal evidence of cannabis use by professional programmers abounds. Recent studies have found that some professionals regularly use cannabis while programming, even for work-related tasks. However, accounts of the impacts of cannabis on programming vary widely and are often contradictory. For ex...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings / International Conference on Software Engineering pp. 2381 - 2392
Main Authors: He, Wenxin, Parikh, Manasvi, Weimer, Westley, Endres, Madeline
Format: Conference Proceeding
Language:English
Published: ACM 14.04.2024
Subjects:
cannabis
Computer bugs
controlled user study
Creativity
drug policy
History
preregistered hypotheses
programming preferences
Programming profession
Software
Software engineering
Task analysis
ISSN:1558-1225
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Summary:Anecdotal evidence of cannabis use by professional programmers abounds. Recent studies have found that some professionals regularly use cannabis while programming, even for work-related tasks. However, accounts of the impacts of cannabis on programming vary widely and are often contradictory. For example, some programmers claim that it impairs their ability to generate correct solutions, while others claim it enhances creativity and focus. There remains a need for an empirical understanding of the true impacts of cannabis on programming. This paper presents the first controlled observational study of cannabis's effects on programming ability. Based on a within-subjects design with over 70 participants, we find that, at ecologically valid dosages, cannabis significantly impairs programming performance. Programs implemented while high contain more bugs and take longer to write (p < 0.05) -a small to medium effect (0.22\ \leq d \leq 0.44) . We also did not find any evidence that high programmers generate more divergent solutions. However, programmers can accurately assess differences in their programming performance (r=0.59) even when under the influence of cannabis. We hope that this research will facilitate evidence-based policies and help developers make informed decisions regarding cannabis use while programming.
ISSN:1558-1225
DOI:10.1145/3597503.3639145