The Effects of Personality Traits on Rumors

The spread of rumors has often been linked to major social and political impacts with consequences that oftentimes may prove to be severe. While there are multiple factors that could make a rumor more believable, this paper focuses on investigating the effects of personality traits on believing or disbelieving rumors. Participants were given a survey which included rumors relating to a single topic, COVID-19, to avoid topic-bias. Participants were also given a personality test which assessed the participants’ traits based on the Big 5 Model and categorized them as high or low. The effect of valence (pleasure) and arousal (excitement) on believing or disbelieving rumors was also explored, along with how this effect differs from one trait to another. The results showed that people with high agreeableness tend to believe rumors more than people with low agreeableness and that there was a correlation between valence and believing rumors for people with high neuroticism and people with low agreeableness. No correlation was found between arousal and believing rumors for any of the personality traits. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

An Analysis of Difference in Preventive Health Behaviors for COVID-19 by Personality Characteristics in College Athletes

Background: Dueto the uniqueness of COVID-19 compared with other infectious diseases, the need for various countermeasures against it should be emphasized, and considering that most athletes are not allowed to wear masks during competitions, stricter preventive health behaviors for COVID-19 are required among these individuals. Therefore, in an attempt to yield data that may be used to increase the engagement in preventive health behaviors for COVID-19 among college athletes, this study investigated the differences in preventive health behaviors for COVID-19 according to personality types. Material and Methods: Based on the Big Five personality theory, the relationship between preventive health behaviors for COVID-19 and personality characteristics was tested. Data were collected from 65 participants (male: n = 53, female: n = 12) through a questionnaire survey. Results: The results showed no differences in preventive health behaviors according to demographic characteristics such as sex, grade, sports type, and career. The highest score for a personality type was for conscientiousness, and those with a higher level of conscientiousness, extraversion, neuroticism, and openness reported higher scores for preventive health behavior for COVID-19. Interestingly, those with low openness also reported higher scores for preventive health behaviors for COVID-19. Conclusions: These results are expected to be used as important information to restrict the spread of COVID-19 and promote preventive health behaviors among college athletes.

Linking Personality Traits and Most Valued Aspects in a Job to Reduce the Gap between Students´ Expectations and Company Value Propositions

Minimizing the gap between students' expectations and company value propositions is essential to improve the professional development of students, reduce turnover and foster organizational commitment, and so, career advisors have become key players to connect students with potential employers. This is especially relevant in this COVID-19 time when millions of jobs have been destroyed and there is a high level of uncertainty regarding what will happen in the future. Thus, the aim of this research is to investigate the relationship between students' personality traits and their most valued aspects when looking for a job, to gain insights into how to maximize their matching. Data from 225 hospitality undergraduate students were analyzed regarding their personality traits and preferences. Results showed a positive relationship between the latter two, with personality traits shaped by work experience and gender. These insights contribute to extend career advisor tools to guide students toward the company most suitable for them.

The role of neuroticism and conscientious facets in academic motivation.

INTRODUCTION: Personality differences have been demonstrated to influence an individual's academic performance in different ways. Notably, conscientiousness is the most consistent significant predictor of academic performance, while neuroticism shows inconsistent results. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to determine the relationship between the facets of conscientiousness and neuroticism on academic motivation. METHOD: The study was conducted in Australia and consisted of 285 undergraduate students. The International Personality Item Pool and Motivated Strategies Learning Questionnaire were used to measure personality and motivation, respectively. Structural equation modeling results revealed that conscientiousness had the most significant relationship with academic motivation, while neuroticism was negatively related. The conscientious facets of self-efficacy and achievement striving were positively related to academic motivation. The results also revealed that the anxiety facet of neuroticism was the only significant positive predictor for academic motivation, while depression and vulnerability were negatively related. CONCLUSION: This study reveals how personality facets contribute to academic motivation over assessing grades and superordinate factors alone. Trait-level anxiety significantly contributes to academic motivation, helping us shed light on underlying mechanisms such as defensive pessimism, resulting in higher motivation due to fearing the worst.

Agreeableness and Conscientiousness promote successful adaptation to the Covid-19 pandemic through effective internalization of public health guidelines.

Social distancing (SD) was an effective way of reducing virus transmission during the deadly and highly infectious COVID-19 pandemic. Using a prospective longitudinal design, the present study explored how the Big 5 traits relate to variations in SD in a sample of university students (n = 285), and replicated these findings using informant reports. Self-determination theory's concepts of autonomous motivation and intrinsic community values were explored as potential mechanisms linking traits to SD. Individuals who were higher on trait agreeableness and conscientiousness engaged in more SD because they more effectively internalized the importance and value of the guidelines as a function of their concerns about the welfare of their communities. Informant reports confirmed trait agreeableness and conscientiousness to be associated with more SD. These results enhance our understanding of individual differences associated with better internalization and adherence to public health guidelines and can inform future interventions in similar crises.

The role of bright and dark personality traits in self and other protective pandemic-related preventive behaviors

Aim: The Purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between bright and dark aspects of personality dimensions and self-interest and other interest preventive related behaviors during Covid-19 pandemic. Method: This cross-sectional study was advertised on social media. 541 participants completed four self-reported questionnaires through the online link. Analysis was performed to assess the kind of association by SPSS. Results: Findings indicate different significant associations between the personality dimensions and preventive behaviors. Regression analysis indicated that conscientiousness (B=.27, P=.00) and agreeableness (B=.11, P=.03) positively and extraversion (B= -.14 P =.02) negatively predict self-protective behaviors. Likewise, conscientiousness (B=.40, P=. 00) and agreeableness (B=.14, P=.00) and antisocial tendencies (B= -.23, P=.00) could have predictive role in other-oriented behaviors. Conclusion: Personality traits have role in explaining compliance and noncompliance with Covid-19 guideline protocols and protecting self and others.

Investigating the impact of personality traits on perceived usability evaluation of e-learning platforms

Purpose>The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of personality traits on the perceived usability evaluation of e-learning platforms. In specific, perceived usability levels of the educational platforms and tools used in primary and secondary education in Greece are demonstrated. The impact which personality traits and other individual-related factors have on the perceived usability were also examined.Design/methodology/approach>In total, 2,239 Greek primary and secondary education teachers participated in the study through an online survey. The system usability scale (SUS) and Big 5 personality test questionnaires were adopted, as well as a demographics questionnaire and nine platforms were examined: e-me, eclass, Google Classroom, Microsoft Teams, Cisco Webex, Edmodo, Padlet, Skype and Zoom.Findings>Most platforms were rated as satisfactory in terms of perceived usability as measured by SUS. SUS scores were not found to be significantly related with participants’ age, gender, private/public school, working relationship. Furthermore, openness to new experience and extraversion demonstrated the strongest positive correlation with perceived usability evaluation.Research limitations/implications>The current study used a sample of Greek teachers as participants, so the generalizability of results without considering cultural or organizational issues is of questionable validity. The Big 5 personality test is widely adopted;however, it seems that it does not capture comprehensively all possible dimensions of personality.Practical implications>Acknowledging the correlations between personality traits and perceived usability for each platform, teachers may now choose the most user-friendly one depending on the personality traits. Designers can adapt their systems to meet users’ needs accordingly. Moreover, the reported results provide a frame of reference for the respective organizations and companies to compare the quality of user experience of their products and services. Thus, development costs of an e-learning platform/tool can be reduced accordingly.Social implications>Text.Originality/value>Perceived usability of a technological system affects the way users interact with it and consequently the whole learning experience. Thus, factors which may affect perceived usability and, in turn, the learning outcomes are of paramount importance and should be exhaustively examined. Giving that personality affects or is related to, other parameters related with technology (technology adoption, perceived and actual use, acceptance, interaction, perceived ease of use), this study addresses a significant research gap and sheds light to the before-mentioned issues.

Acceptance and Adherence to COVID-19 Preventive Measures are Shaped Predominantly by Conspiracy Beliefs, Mistrust in Science and Fear - A Comparison of More than 20 Psychological Variables.

The global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic sparked a great interest in psychological factors that determine or explain peoples' responses to the novel threatening situation and the preventive measures (e.g. wearing masks, social distancing). In this study, we focused on contaminated mindware (conspiracy and paranormal beliefs) and investigated its relationship with both acceptance of and adherence to COVID-19 preventive measures, along with other variables from the domains of emotion (trait anxiety, fear), traditional personality traits (Big 5, locus of control, optimism/pessimism) and motivation (self-control, dispositional regulatory focus). A total of 22 variables were measured in an online survey (N = 374) that took place during the second wave of COVID-19 (Nov. 2020 - March 2021) in Switzerland. Of all variables, the endorsement of specific COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs was most strongly associated with lower acceptance and adherence to the preventive measures, together with mistrust in science and a more right-wing political orientation. In contrast, fear of COVID-19 and prevention regulatory focus were positively associated with acceptance and adherence. Our results therefore highlight the importance of fighting (conspiratorial) misinformation and of increasing the perceived credibility of science in reducing the spread of the coronavirus. Moreover, when acceptance was used as predictor for adherence, agreeableness and dispositional prevention regulatory focus still explained unique variance in adherence, suggesting that such personality and motivational variables play an important role in adhering and regulating preventive behaviour independent from the attitude towards the preventive measures themselves.

Personality and Its Partisan Political Correlates Predict U.S. State Differences in Covid-19 Policies and Mask Wearing Percentages.

A central feature of the Covid-19 pandemic is state differences. Some state Governors closed all but essential businesses, others did not. In some states, most of the population wore face coverings when in public; in other states, <50% wore face coverings. According to journalists, these differences were symptomatic of a politically polarized America. The Big 5 personality factors also cluster at the state level. For example, residents of Utah score high on Conscientiousness and low on Neuroticism, whereas residents of Massachusetts and Connecticut show the opposite pattern. In state-level regressions that controlled for partisan political allegiances, Conscientiousness was a significant (negative) predictor of the stringency of state Covid-19 restrictions, whereas Openness was a significant (positive) predictor of mask wearing. A number of the predictors were strongly correlated with each other. For example, the correlation coefficient linking Openness with the percentage of Democratic state legislators was r = 0.53. Commonality regression partitions the explained variance between the amount that is unique to each predictor and the amount that is shared among subsets of correlated predictors. This approach revealed that the common variance shared by Conscientiousness, Openness and partisan politics accounted for 34% of the state differences in Covid-19 policy and 35% of the state differences in mask wearing. The results reflect the importance of personality in how Americans have responded to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Zooming their way through university: Which Big 5 traits facilitated students' adjustment to online courses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Many students struggled with the abrupt transition to online classes required by the COVID-19 pandemic. The present research used a self-determination theory framework to examine the role of the Big 5 personality traits in university students' adaptation to online learning, measured by their quality of motivation, subjective well-being, self-efficacy, online engagement, and online satisfaction. A longitudinal study was conducted across the 2020 fall semester and included a total of 350 university students who answered surveys in September and December. Results showed that conscientiousness and openness to experience were associated with higher self-efficacy and with different forms of autonomous motivation for online learning. Conscientiousness was related to identified motivation, whereas openness to experience was related to intrinsic motivation. In contrast, neuroticism was related to increases in controlled motivation. Only openness to experience was strongly related to engagement with online learning and higher levels of subjective well-being. These findings suggest that openness to experience may be an adaptive trait for students' transition to online classes during these times of uncertainty.