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Does personality predict responses to the COVID-19 crisis? Evidence from a prospective large-scale study
[journal article]
Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly disrupted people's daily routines and infused their lives with considerable insecurity and uncertainty. However, individuals' responses to the pandemic vary widely. The present study investigates the role of personality traits for key aspects of people's respo... view more
The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly disrupted people's daily routines and infused their lives with considerable insecurity and uncertainty. However, individuals' responses to the pandemic vary widely. The present study investigates the role of personality traits for key aspects of people's responses to the COVID-19 crisis. In a prospective design using a large-scale panel study (N = 2217) that represents the heterogeneity of the adult population in Germany, we examined whether Big Five domains and facets measured prior to the pandemic predicted individuals' responses to the pandemic in terms of: (a) perceptions of infection risks; (b) behavioral changes to prevent infection; (c) beliefs in the effectiveness of policy measures to combat the further spread of coronavirus; and (d) trust in relevant policymakers and institutions regarding the handling of coronavirus. Results revealed that personality explained only a small portion (between 0.6% and 3.8%) of the variance in the four outcomes. Nonetheless, several Big Five domains and facets had at least small-to-moderate, and theoretically plausible, associations with the outcomes. Overall, Agreeableness and its Trust facet showed the most robust associations with the four outcomes. Most trait-outcome associations were also robust to controlling for three possible confounders (sex, age, and risk-group membership).... view less
Keywords
epidemic; attitude; perception; behavior; personality traits; Federal Republic of Germany
Classification
Personality Psychology
Free Keywords
Big Five; BFI-2-S; personality facets; coronavirus; COVID-19; GESIS Panel, Special Survey on the Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 Outbreak in Germany, ZA5667 (version 1.1.0)
Document language
English
Publication Year
2021
Page/Pages
p. 1-14
Journal
European Journal of Personality (2021)
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1177/0890207021996970
ISSN
1099-0984
Status
Postprint; peer reviewed
Licence
Creative Commons - Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0