The Health Behavior Model of Personality in the Context of a Public Health Crisis.

Willroth, Emily C; Smith, Angela M; Shallcross, Amanda J; Graham, Eileen K; Mroczek, Daniel K; Ford, Brett Q

OBJECTIVES The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended behavioral measures to slow the spread of COVID-19, such as social distancing and wearing masks. While many individuals comply with these recommendations, compliance has been far from universal. Identifying predictors of compliance is crucial for improving health-behavior messaging and thereby reducing disease spread and fatalities. METHOD We report pre-registered analyses from a longitudinal study which investigated personality predictors of compliance with behavioral recommendations in diverse U.S. adults across five waves from March through August, 2020 (N=596) and cross-sectionally in August, 2020 (N=405). RESULTS Agreeableness-characterized by compassion-was the most consistent predictor of compliance, above and beyond other traits and socio-demographic predictors (Sample A β = 0.25; Sample B β = 0.12). The effect of agreeableness was robust across two diverse samples and sensitivity analyses. In addition, openness, conscientiousness, and extraversion were also associated with greater compliance but effects were less consistent across sensitivity analyses and were smaller in Sample A. CONCLUSIONS Individuals who are less agreeable are at high-risk for non-compliance with behavioral mandates, suggesting that health messaging can be meaningfully improved with approaches that address these individuals in particular. These findings highlight the strong theoretical and practical utility of testing long-standing psychological theories during real-world crises.