psychological study
Has the corona pandemic changed our personality?
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The pandemic has changed a lot in our society and in our relationships – and definitely not always in a positive way. A study has now looked at how our personality traits have developed in recent years.
The consequences of the pandemic can be felt in many areas of life – in our health (mental illnesses, long Covid, weight problems), in the economy (sustainable setbacks for sectors such as gastronomy and culture) and in our society (regression in equality, crisis in the nursing and medical sector, social division). Not to mention the effects that individuals and families have had to and are feeling as a result of these major crises (job losses, separations, domestic violence). But have the Corona years also changed us psychologically in the long term?
Personality Study: Before, During and After the Pandemic
There was a large study on this in the USA “Understanding America Study”. For the study, researchers used an online survey to examine the data of more than 7,000 Americans. To do this, they used the five most important personality traits based on the concept of the “Big Five” – neuroticism, extraversion, openness, conscientiousness and agreeableness – which are pronounced to different degrees in all people. The researchers compared values from different points in time, before the pandemic (May 2014 to February 2020), at the beginning of the pandemic (March to December 2020) and later in the pandemic (2021 to 2022). The participants in the study were between 18 and 109 years old and 41 percent were male and 59 percent were female.
When comparing the pre-Covid personality traits and those in the early phase of the pandemic, there was little difference on the neuroticism scale, but the researchers were actually able to see changes, i.e. they compared the pre-Covid traits with those in the later phase of the pandemic: on average people ended up being a little less extroverted, less open, less affable and less conscientious than before.
Young people in particular show negative changes in their personality
The differences weren’t huge, but they were roughly within the range in which our personality normally changes in around ten years. The scientists were able to identify changes in young people in particular: they were less mature, more neurotic in particular and less affable and conscientious.
“The young adults became more moody and prone to stress, they found it more difficult to cooperate with others and to establish trust,” explain the authors of the study. “Also, they seemed to have less self-control and a sense of responsibility.” The oldest participants in the study, on the other hand, hardly showed these differences in their personality.
The research team that evaluated the data concludes from these results that a global and drastic event such as a pandemic lasting years will have a greater long-term impact on the younger generation in particular than previously assumed. Ultimately, it is undisputed that schoolchildren and students had to forego many formative and important experiences of their youth, primarily to protect the older generation. And that doesn’t seem to go unnoticed by them.
Sources used: sciencedaily.com, PLOS