A recent study conducted by researchers from Loughborough University has illuminated the profound effects of the Covid pandemic on personality traits and resilience, offering insights into how humanity has psychologically processed this global health crisis. The findings were published in Psychreg Journal of Psychology.
The study involved 147 participants aged 18 to 73, who completed the Ten-Item Personality Inventory and the Brief Resilience Scale. These tools were employed to assess the Big Five personality traits – openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and emotional stability – alongside resilience, both pre- and post-pandemic.
The findings revealed significant changes in three of the Big Five traits. Emotional stability, extraversion, and openness experienced marked declines, with emotional stability showing the most substantial decrease. Female participants reported lower levels of openness and agreeableness following the pandemic, while male participants showed relative stability in these traits. Interestingly, resilience remained unchanged across genders, contradicting initial hypotheses that it would increase due to the pandemic’s challenges.
Lead author Mollie McAlister noted that the study was driven by the urgent need to understand the mental health toll of the pandemic. “The public had undergone lockdown, social distancing measures, and employment crises, which fed into a public mental health crisis. Early approaches toward COVID-19 were largely biological, focusing on vaccines and physical health, with scant attention paid to the burgeoning mental health crisis. This study was motivated by this deficit, aiming to identify risk and resilience factors to bolster public well-being during a time of dire societal turbulence.”
Gender differences in personality changes were attributed to societal and economic factors. Women, disproportionately affected by job insecurity and increased caregiving responsibilities during lockdowns, displayed decreases in agreeableness and openness. McAlister explained, “Negative changes to female emotional stability, openness, and agreeableness are related to job insecurity and routinisation. During the pandemic, women faced additional childcare responsibilities, which may have intersected with openness. These factors underscore the notion that the coronavirus pandemic was a gendered experience, with women particularly at risk of undesirable mental health outcomes due to maladaptive personality changes.”
The stability of resilience, despite the declines in other traits, underscores its dynamic nature. While resilience is often viewed as a measure of emotional or psychological recovery, its unchanging levels suggest it may act as a buffer during crises, helping individuals adapt without significant emotional deterioration. McAlister added, “Stable resilience, alongside elevated emotional instability, affirms the characterisation of resilience as adaptive recovery to adverse events, rather than the initial affective response. While this is beneficial, the study strongly encourages initiatives to maintain resilience in the vulnerability period post-Covid-19.”
The study also noted the implications of reduced extraversion and emotional stability for public mental health. Decreases in these traits are associated with heightened vulnerability to anxiety and depression, raising concerns about a potential mental health crisis in the wake of the pandemic. McAlister highlighted the importance of targeted interventions: “Deficient extraversion reduces the power of this trait as a mediating variable against psychopathology. Combined with the risk posed by heightened emotional instability, this underscores the requirement for governmental and local emphasis on community initiatives that promote integration, involvement, socialisation, and emotional support.”
These findings provide valuable insights for public health planning, particularly in addressing long-term psychological effects of global crises. The study’s authors suggest that measures to enhance social cohesion and support networks could mitigate the negative impacts of such events on personality and mental health. McAlister expressed interest in continuing the research: “While there are no confirmed plans to continue this study, I would like to evaluate whether these effects have held, reduced, or worsened over time.”
