Can personality traits influence self-isolation compliance during the coronavirus?

A recent global study looked at the relationship between personality factors and shelter-in-place compliance during the coronavirus.

As countries around the world battle the second wave of coronavirus and self-isolation fatigue becomes an increasingly alarming problem, understanding how various factors can affect social distancing compliance is still important.

The dire fact that the pandemic has been an unprecedented problem for several months is hard to ignore. Even so, data collection efforts have expanded relentlessly, and researchers have begun analyzing some of the results.

Collecting data is not only important to study the spread of the virus, and psychological research can have far-reaching implications for our understanding of the pandemic. As the world waits for a reliably effective and safe vaccine, most countries have issued protective and social distance or self-isolation orders to contain or at least delay the spread of COVID-19.

With self-isolation and social distancing as one of the few tools currently available to contain the spread of coronavirus, it is imperative that countries understand the factors influencing compliance with such measures. To make matters worse, people's personality traits are different and affect the way they perceive and interact with the world. Hence, no strategy will work to ensure full compliance.

Rather, a dynamic messaging approach may need to be chosen. However, this requires an analysis of the effectiveness of the tools available, not only for the entire population, but also by focusing on the range of such personality traits.

To better understand the relationship between coronavirus self-isolation compliance and personality traits, researchers from England and the United States examined the data collected between March and April of this year as part of the Measuring Worldwide COVID-19 Attitudes and Beliefs project. As published in American Psychologist, the official journal of the American Psychological Association, the analyzed data included 101,005 participants in 55 countries.

In the study, personality traits were assessed using the Ten Item Personality Inventory (TIPI), with each participant classified on the continuum of the Big Five personality traits. The characteristics of the Big Five model are: extraversion, tolerance, openness to experience, conscientiousness and neuroticism. Using the COVID-19 Government Response Stringency Index, the researchers further examined how strict the national policy was for each participant at the time. Both the personality traits and the stringency data were assessed individually and in conjunction with a self-reported measure for compliance with on-site orders.

The results showed that both stringency and personality independently predicted compliance with self-isolation during the coronavirus pandemic. In terms of policy, the researchers found that the stricter the measures, the higher the compliance rate. With regard to personality traits, the results indicated that compliance was observed in participants who were related to tolerance, openness to experience, and conscientiousness. On the other hand, participants with higher scores for the extraversion feature were less inclined to follow the on-site protection instructions.

These relationships have been shown to be similar to or stronger than demographic variables (e.g. age, gender, education, or income), personal health, perceived or expected severity of the pandemic. Additionally, the effects of policy stringency and personality traits (especially openness to experience) were significant even when controlled cases were confirmed per country – the strongest predictor of compliance.

Additionally, the researchers found that people who scored fewer points for openness to experience and neuroticism were less likely to comply with social distancing orders if government policies weren't strict. With stricter national guidelines, these individuals became less likely to be non-compliant. No such relationship was recorded for any of the other characteristics. According to the researchers, this could indicate the power of personality in influencing behavior. The researchers also suggest that this could indicate that people with different traits are affected differently by state stringency.

It may be surprising that the trait openness to experience is positively related to compliance, since this trait is traditionally associated with more risk behavior, a willingness to deviate from cultural rules, and an affinity for new and unfamiliar situations. However, the researchers explain that this effect can be due to several important factors. On the one hand, such people are more likely to look for new information and adapt more easily to new situations. It is also that this trait is linked to more liberal political attitudes, which, particularly in the United States, have previously been shown to greatly influence the likelihood of individuals knowing the severity of COVID-19, staying informed, and supporting more drastic action , Etc.

The researchers continue to discuss various limitations that could affect the results of this study. For one thing, the size of the impact of these variables was rather small, and in larger studies the results are more likely to be significant, even if they are small. Additionally, while validated, the TIPI is rather small and relies on self-reported actions that may not be as accurate. Still, the researchers suggest that these results are essential, suggesting that personality should be considered when considering compliance with coronavirus guidelines such as self-isolation. According to the researchers, it can be useful to tailor communication through self-isolation measures to the individual personalities of the recipients.

Written by Maor Bernshtein

Reference: Götz, F. M., Gvirtz, A., Galinsky, A. D. & Jachimowicz, J. M. (2020). How Personality and Politics Predict Pandemic Behavior: Understanding Protection in 55 Countries at the Beginning of COVID-19. American psychologist. Online pre-release. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/amp0000740

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