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Beyond the lungs and other organs of the body, COVID-19 has brought some behavioral consequenceson factors such as extroversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness, according to a new study.
With the arrival of the pandemic and health restrictions in place, such as social isolation, some young people and adults have experienced a range of problems changes in your personality traitssaid researchers from Florida State University School of Medicine, in the United States, led by Angelina Sutin.
“Young adults have become more moody and more prone to stress, less collaborative and confident, and less moderate and responsible “, reads the article published in the magazine Plos One.
During the first part of the pandemic (March to December 2020), the personality remained relatively stable, with a small decrease in neuroticism compared to past dates. This could be because COVID “provides a reason” for feelings of anxiety and makes people less likely to blame their own disposition, the authors commented.
On the other hand, the reduction in neuroticism disappeared in the period from 2021 to 2022 and was replaced by decreases in extroversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness, compared to the pre-pandemic personality. Furthermore, the younger adults showed the greatest changes, while the older adult group had no significant changes in these traits.
“The interactions of age for kindness and conscientiousness indicated that the diminish of these two sections, in 2021-2022, it was stronger among relatively younger participants compared to relatively older ones. The interaction with age for 2020 is also significant for agreeableness “.
The first, why personality tends to be more malleable in addition, in younger adults, the pandemic may have had a more negative impact on this age group as well, the researchers said.
“While the pandemic was stressful for everyone, it disrupted the regulatory tasks of younger adulthood, such as school and transitioning into work, being social and building relationships. It’s speculative because we haven’t measured the reasons for the change, but this disruption may have had a bigger impact on young adults because these tasks are so important for this age group, ”Sutin said.
The research findings were obtained through personality assessments of 7,109 people enrolled in the United States Comprehension Study in a line that had been repeated at different times before and during the pandemic.
Participants were given a test that measures five personality traits: neuroticism (a tendency to experience negative emotions), extroversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness.
The researchers will continue to monitor participants to see if the personality changes are temporary or lasting.
“If these changes are long-lasting, this evidence suggests that population-wide stressful events may slightly distort personality trajectory, especially in young adults,” they concluded.
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