Personality differences and COVID-19: are extroversion and conscientiousness personality traits associated with engagement with containment measures?

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.

摘要与引言
2019年12月，新型冠状病毒引发的2019冠状病毒病（coronavirus disease 2019, COVID-19）疫情率先在中国武汉暴发。至2020年3月，世界卫生组织（World Health Organization, WHO）正式将此次疫情定性为全球大流行。彼时，各国纷纷推荐实施社交距离、手部卫生等防控举措。本研究提出如下假设：在全球大流行背景下，部分人群相较于其他人群，更易自觉遵守防控措施；由此推测，个体差异应与防控措施的依从程度存在关联。

研究目的：探讨外向性（extroversion）与尽责性（conscientiousness）两种人格特质，与两项核心防控措施（社交距离、洗手）的依从程度之间的关联。

研究方法：本研究纳入715名年龄介于18至78岁的巴西成年人为研究样本，受试者完成了大五人格量表简版2（Big Five Inventory 2 Short, BFI-2-S）以及维度化临床人格量表2（Dimensional Clinical Personality Inventory 2, IDCP-2）的相关因子测评。

研究结果：外向性得分越高，社交距离依从性的平均水平越低（p < 0.001）；尽责性得分越高，社交距离与洗手的依从性平均水平越高（p < 0.05）。

研究结论：本研究结果表明，重视外向性与尽责性人格特质，对于理解民众对COVID-19防控推荐措施的依从情况具有重要的实践与理论价值。