Who Is Impacted? Personality Predicts Individual Differences in Psychological Consequences of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Germany

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...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Social psychological & personality science 2021-08, Vol.12 (6), p.1110-1130
Main Authors: Modersitzki, Nick, Phan, Le Vy, Kuper, Niclas, Rauthmann, John F.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
Extraversion
Five factor model
Honesty
Individual differences
Modern history
Neuroticism
Openness
Pandemics
Personality
Personality traits
Sociodemographics
Well being
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Summary: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.
ISSN:1948-5506
1948-5514
DOI:10.1177/1948550620952576