Positive and negative perceptions of the COVID-19 pandemic: Does personality play a role?

Schmiedeberg, Claudia; Thönnissen, Carolin

OBJECTIVE The lockdown measures following the COVID-19 outbreak in early 2020, intended to slow the spread of the virus, forced a sudden and dramatic change to most everyday lives. However, not all individuals may have been affected in the same way. In addition to situational factors such as occupation, family status, and health, personality traits may affect how individuals experienced the initial crisis. METHODS Using data from the pairfam COVID-19 survey, an online survey of the participants of the German Family Panel pairfam conducted from May to July 2020, as well as personality data from the pairfam panel data, this study analyzes whether the Big Five personality traits influence the degree to which young and middle-aged individuals (16-49 years old) felt negatively affected by and were able to see any benefits of the initial COVID-19 lockdown in Germany. RESULTS While neuroticism is linked to a more negative perception of the restrictions to daily life, openness to experiences is associated with more positive perceptions of the situation. Like neuroticism, extraversion is also associated with a more negative perception, but only among respondents without a partner. For respondents with a romantic partner, no association was found. CONCLUSION Results confirm that personality plays a role in individual perceptions of the pandemic situation. Moreover, they show that most individuals perceived not only negative but also positive aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic situation in 2020.