ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to changes in people's private and public lives that are unprecedented in modern history. However, little is known about the differential psychological consequences of restrictions that have been imposed to fight the pandemic. In a large and diverse German sample (N = 1,320), we examined how individual differences in psychological consequences of the pandemic (perceived restrictiveness of government-supported measures, global pandemic-related appraisals, subjective well-being) were associated with a broad set of faceted personality traits (Big Five, Honesty-Humility, Dark Triad). Facets of Extraversion, Neuroticism, and Openness were among the strongest and most important predictors of psychological outcomes, even after controlling for basic sociodemographic variables (gender, age). These findings suggest that psychological consequences of the pandemic depend on personality and thus add to the growing literature on the importance of considering individual differences in crisis situations. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic can be understood as a situation that triggers a specific form of trait activation;that is, one in which personality can influence the chance of becoming infected. This research examines the relations between HEXACO personality and COVID-19 avoidance behaviors, which is operationalized in terms of the threat that people experience and the extent to which they comply with the COVID-19 rules of conduct. In addition, the study examines the extent to which COVID-19 avoidance behaviors relate to an increase in working from home. In a stratified Dutch sample of 932 adults (of which N = 526 were employed) in September 2020, we found that - in addition to age - high emotionality and conscientiousness and low extraversion were the main unique personality predictors of COVID-19 avoidance behaviors. A selection of six facets (fearfulness, sociability, diligence, inquisitiveness, unconventionality, and proactivity) predicted COVID-19 avoidance behaviors better than the HEXACO domain scales. The main predictors of an increase in working from home were having an office job and a high level of education. The study shows that individual differences play an important role in how people deal with the pandemic, and that differences in education and type of job were most important for the extent to which people started working from home.
ABSTRACT
During the COVID-19 pandemic, various behavioral measures were imposed to curb the spread of the virus. In a preregistered study based on a quota-representative sample of adult Danish citizens (N = 1031), we compared the prevalence estimates of self-reported handwashing, physical distancing, and attitudes toward the behavioral measures between people surveyed with a direct and an indirect questioning approach (i.e., the crosswise model). Moreover, we investigated two possible predictors of sensitive behaviors and attitudes, namely empathy for people vulnerable to the virus and Honesty-Humility from the HEXACO Model of Personality. We also examined the interaction of both predictors with the questioning format. Survey participants reported more violation of guidelines regarding handwashing and physical distancing when asked indirectly rather than directly, whereas attitudes regarding the behavioral measures did not differ between the two questioning formats. Respondents with less empathy for people vulnerable to COVID-19 reported more violations of handwashing and physical-distancing, and those low on Honesty-Humility reported more violations of physical distancing.
ABSTRACT
The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has strongly affected individuals and societies worldwide. In this review and meta-analysis, we investigated how aversive personality traits - that is, relatively stable antisocial personality characteristics - related to how individuals perceived, evaluated, and responded to the COVID-19 pandemic. Across 34 studies with overall 26,780 participants, we found that people with higher scores in aversive personality traits were less likely to perceive guidelines and restrictions to curb the spread of the virus as protective ((p)over dot = -.11), to engage in health behaviors related to COVID-19 ((p)over dot = -.16), and to engage in non-health-related prosocial behavior related to COVID-19 ((p)over dot = -.14). We found no consistent relation between aversive personality and negative effect regarding the pandemic. The results thus indicate the importance of aversive personality traits in understanding individual differences with regard to COVID-19.