Preliminary findings on the associations between personality traits and engagement behavior to the COVID-19 containment measures

ABSTRACT

In March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) had declared the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Three weeks after WHO’s declaration, almost 900,000 cases of COVID-19 were confirmed, with more than 43,000 deaths worldwide. Containment measures were recommended, such as social distancing and hand hygiene. Although they are known to be helpful to slow down the spread of the COVID-19, the efficiency of these measures depends on people’s adherence. We explore whether personality traits account for variations in the commitment to the COVID-19 containment measures. The sample consisted of 814 Brazilian adults who answered a questionnaire about adherence to COVID-19 containment measures (COVID-19 questionnaire), factors of the Personality Inventory for DSM-5 (PID-5), and the affective resonance factor of the Affective and Cognitive Measure of Empathy (ACME). We conducted a network analysis. All connections observed in the network analysis were significant (p < .05). Empathy was the personality trait to present more connections to the COVID-19 questionnaire variables. The strongest positive connection was observed for emotional lability (PID-5) and the tendency to be concern about others getting the COVID-19 (COVID-19 questionnaire). Our findings indicated that empathy and emotional lability might be key traits directly associated with the propensity to adhere to the COVID-19 containment measures.

KEYWORDS:

• SARS-cov-2
• disease outbreaks
• personality
• compassion
• neuroticism

Acknowledgments

None.

Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).