How and why people change their views on phenomenal consciousness

We report on a qualitative interview study exploring how and why people change their views on phenomenal consciousness — a question gaining urgency given debates about AI sentience and expanding scientific consensus on animal consciousness. We applied thematic analysis to semi-structured interviews with 16 participants (recruited largely through Effective-Altruism-adjacent forums) who reported significant shifts in their views on consciousness, yielding ten parent themes. Most participants started from physicalism (often inherited as a cultural default rather than argued for) and moved in divergent directions — panpsychism (sometimes described as a "least bad option"), idealism, illusionism, or simply increased uncertainty — with no convergence on any single alternative. Intellectual catalysts (e.g. engaging with key texts) tended to produce a gradual erosion of prior views, where arguments typically crystallised pre-existing doubts rather than generating them. By contrast, transformative experiences (e.g. psychedelics, spiritual experiences) produced sudden inversions and were strongly associated with idealist conclusions. The qualitative analysis also led to hypotheses on the interconnectedness of views on consciousness with broader issues, such as ethical views, personal identity, worldview, and wellbeing. In some cases, it appears that a wider sense of orientation and ease correlates with arriving at a more settled view on consciousness that fits within a broader worldview. With some exceptions, we also identify a tendency among those engaging deeply with consciousness ideas towards increased epistemic humility and a broadened view of what counts as evidence. We see these qualitatively-informed hypotheses as a basis for more structured hypothesis testing in future quantitative research.