Psychological and Behavioural Responses to Coronavirus Disease 2019: The Role of Personality
Corresponding Author
Damaris Aschwanden
Department of Geriatrics, College of Medicine, Florida State University, FL, USA
Correspondence to: Damaris Aschwanden, Department of Geriatrics, College of Medicine, Florida State University, 1115 West Call Street, Tallahassee, FL 32306, USA.
E-mail: damaris.aschwanden@med.fsu.edu
Search for more papers by this authorJason E. Strickhouser
Department of Behavioral Sciences and Social Medicine, College of Medicine, Florida State University, FL, USA
Search for more papers by this authorAmanda A. Sesker
Department of Behavioral Sciences and Social Medicine, College of Medicine, Florida State University, FL, USA
Search for more papers by this authorJi Hyun Lee
Department of Behavioral Sciences and Social Medicine, College of Medicine, Florida State University, FL, USA
Search for more papers by this authorMartina Luchetti
Department of Behavioral Sciences and Social Medicine, College of Medicine, Florida State University, FL, USA
Search for more papers by this authorYannick Stephan
Euromov, University of Montpellier, Montpellier, France
Search for more papers by this authorAngelina R. Sutin
Department of Behavioral Sciences and Social Medicine, College of Medicine, Florida State University, FL, USA
Search for more papers by this authorAntonio Terracciano
Department of Geriatrics, College of Medicine, Florida State University, FL, USA
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Damaris Aschwanden
Department of Geriatrics, College of Medicine, Florida State University, FL, USA
Correspondence to: Damaris Aschwanden, Department of Geriatrics, College of Medicine, Florida State University, 1115 West Call Street, Tallahassee, FL 32306, USA.
E-mail: damaris.aschwanden@med.fsu.edu
Search for more papers by this authorJason E. Strickhouser
Department of Behavioral Sciences and Social Medicine, College of Medicine, Florida State University, FL, USA
Search for more papers by this authorAmanda A. Sesker
Department of Behavioral Sciences and Social Medicine, College of Medicine, Florida State University, FL, USA
Search for more papers by this authorJi Hyun Lee
Department of Behavioral Sciences and Social Medicine, College of Medicine, Florida State University, FL, USA
Search for more papers by this authorMartina Luchetti
Department of Behavioral Sciences and Social Medicine, College of Medicine, Florida State University, FL, USA
Search for more papers by this authorYannick Stephan
Euromov, University of Montpellier, Montpellier, France
Search for more papers by this authorAngelina R. Sutin
Department of Behavioral Sciences and Social Medicine, College of Medicine, Florida State University, FL, USA
Search for more papers by this authorAntonio Terracciano
Department of Geriatrics, College of Medicine, Florida State University, FL, USA
Search for more papers by this authorAbstract
This study examined the associations between personality traits and psychological and behavioural responses to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Personality was assessed in January/February 2020 when the public was not aware of the spread of coronavirus in the USA. Participants were reassessed in late March 2020 with four sets of questions about the pandemic: concerns, precautions, preparatory behaviours, and duration estimates. The sample consisted of N = 2066 participants (mean age = 51.42; range = 18–98; 48.5% women). Regression models were used to analyse the data with age, gender, education, race, and ethnicity as covariates. Consistent with the preregistered hypotheses, higher neuroticism was related to more concerns and longer duration estimates related to COVID-19, higher extraversion was related to shorter duration estimates, and higher conscientiousness was associated with more precautions. In contrast to the preregistered hypotheses, higher neuroticism was associated with fewer precautions and unrelated to preparatory behaviours. Age moderated several trait–response associations, suggesting that some of the responses were associated more strongly in older adults, a group at risk for complications of COVID-19. For example, older adults high in conscientiousness prepared more. The present findings provide insights into how personality predicts concerns and behaviours related to the COVID-19 pandemic. © 2020 European Association of Personality Psychology
Conflict of Interest
The authors declare no potential conflicts of interest concerning the research, the authorship, and publication of this article.
Supporting Information
Filename | Description |
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per2281-sup-0001-supplementary_DA.docxWord 2007 document , 96 KB |
Table S1 Zero-Order Correlations Between (A) Personality Traits and Outcomes as well as (B) Sociodemographic Variables and Outcomes Table S2. Personality Traits and Facets: Intercorrelations, Descriptive Statistics, and Reliabilities Table S3. Outcomes: Intercorrelations and Descriptive Statistics Table S4. Model 2: Controlling for Income Table S5. Personality Traits Entered Simultaneously Table S6. Personality Predicting Difficulty, Effectiveness, and Normativity of Precautions. Table S7. Exploratory Model: Interaction Between Personality Traits Table S8. Item-Factor Loadings of Concern Items |
per2281-sup-0001-Open_Practices_Disclosure_Form.pdfPDF document, 226.6 KB |
Supporting info item |
Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.
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