Personality differences and COVID-19: are extroversion and conscientiousness personality traits associated with engagement with containment measures?
Trends psychiatry psychother. (Impr.)
;
42(2): 179-184, Apr.-June 2020. tab
Article
in English
| LILACS
| ID: biblio-1139822
ABSTRACT
Abstract Introduction In December 2019, an outbreak of the novel coronavirus, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) probably occurred in Wuhan, China. By March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) had declared a pandemic. Containment measures such as social distancing and hand hygiene were recommended. In this study, we start from the hypothesis that engaging with containment measures in a pandemic situation should be more comfortable for some people than for other people. Thus, individual differences should be associated with engagement with containment measures. Objective To investigate to what extent two personality traits, extroversion and conscientiousness, are associated with engagement with two containment measures (social distancing and handwashing). Methods The sample consisted of 715 Brazilian adults aged 18-78 years, who answered the Big Five Inventory 2 Short (BFI-2-S) and factors from the Dimensional Clinical Personality Inventory 2 (IDCP-2). Results Higher scores for extroversion were associated with lower means for social distancing (p < 0.001) and higher scores for conscientiousness were associated with higher means for social distancing and handwashing (p < 0.05). Conclusion The findings indicate the importance of acknowledging extroversion and conscientiousness traits as relevant to people's engagement with the measures recommended for COVID-19 containment.
Full text:
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Index:
LILACS (Americas)
Main subject:
Personality
/
Pneumonia, Viral
/
Social Behavior
/
Health Behavior
/
Hand Disinfection
/
Coronavirus Infections
/
Guideline Adherence
/
Extraversion, Psychological
/
Pandemics
Type of study:
Risk factors
Limits:
Adolescent
/
Adult
/
Aged
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
Country/Region as subject:
South America
/
Brazil
Language:
English
Journal:
Trends psychiatry psychother. (Impr.)
Journal subject:
Psychiatry
Year:
2020
Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Brazil
Institution/Affiliation country:
Universidade São Francisco/BR
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