The period of the COVID-19 pandemic can be seen as a kind of natural experiment, a self-induced stress test for individuals and society. This has enabled a number of studies examining how people deal with difficult situations and how people's personalities affect their mental health in such scenarios (UK (including Proto and Zhang, 2021 and China's Zhang et al., 2023).
Evidence from this study shows that people with more open personalities are more likely to have difficulties with their mental health during the pandemic. This pattern holds true for both the UK and China. Openness is a personality trait that reflects a preference for exploration and new experiences. In fact, this trait is often referred to as openness to experience.
According to data from the China Family Panel Survey (a survey representative of major countries), two standard deviation differences in openness (roughly speaking, differences between individuals at opposite ends of this personality trait) are more common in China. has been shown to respond to symptoms of depression. , an increase of approximately 0.1 on the 8-item Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D).
In the UK, a two standard deviation increase in openness can mean an average increase of 0.46 symptoms on the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12). The UK evidence is based on data from the Understanding Society.
Both the CES-D and GHQ-12 are considered reliable indicators of mental health pathology. These are based on self-reports of typical symptoms of mental health problems.
One surprising finding was that being more nervous in the UK did not necessarily mean worse mental health during the coronavirus outbreak, and actually reduced the impact in China. It is.
Furthermore, in the UK, being more conscientious appears to have a positive impact on mental health. On the other hand, being more extroverted seems to have a negative impact. In China, neither conscientiousness nor extraversion seem to have any effect.
These differences in how personality traits influenced mental health in the UK and China during the pandemic merit further investigation.
What does the evidence tell us about personality traits?
Personality traits are often grouped into five dimensions according to what experts call the “Big Five” taxonomy (e.g., Costa and McGrae, 2008). these are:
- Extraversion (sociable/active vs. solitary/reserved).
- Agreeableness (friendly/sympathetic or critical/rational).
- Openness to experience (originality/curiosity vs. consistency/prudence).
- Integrity (being efficient/organized and being extravagant/careless).
- Neuroticism (sensitive/neurotic vs. resilient/confident).
Research shows how being open can lead to mental health issues in environments with strong restrictions, such as those introduced in response to the pandemic.
This confirms that people with open personalities are often creative, curious, and looking for new adventures. Therefore, the limited experience due to the pandemic may further impact them.
Surprisingly, high neuroticism, which typically makes people more sensitive to negative emotions, did not necessarily lead to poorer mental health during the pandemic. This suggests that neurotic people may be more sensitive to crises and thus learn to adapt to situations faster and better.
Two studies illustrate the differences that have emerged between the two countries. However, it is important to remember that there are significant differences in population and size between the UK and China, so the findings should be interpreted with caution.
The trait of agreeableness associated with having good social skills may have helped people cope with the constrained environment during lockdown. However, because agreeable people are more compassionate, the events of the pandemic may also have a negative effect on them by making them more empathetic to the suffering of others.
In the UK, the first effect appeared to be stronger and therefore more cooperative people coped better. On the other hand, in China both effects seem to balance each other and no difference is detectable.
The trait of extraversion is usually associated with enjoying social interactions, but when social contacts are limited, it can have a negative impact on mental health. This effect has been observed in the UK, but not in China. This may be partly explained by the fact that extroverts are thought to be better at adapting to new situations.
How reliable is this evidence?
The evidence for these studies relies on two comprehensive datasets representing each country.
Data for the UK study comes from the UK Household Longitudinal Study, also known as the Understanding Society. This analysis combines seven rounds of the COVID-19 survey conducted from April 2020 to January 2021 and the pre-pandemic ninth round of the main survey from 2017 to 2019. It was done.
The Chinese study primarily uses data from the China Family Panel Survey (CFPS) from 2018 and 2020. The 2018 pre-pandemic wave was collected from June 2018 to May 2019, and the 2020 wave data was collected from July 2020 to December 2020. As a result, both datasets specifically capture the early stages of the pandemic crisis.
Are there any other recent studies on the same issue?
Only a few studies have investigated how personality influenced responses to the pandemic. A study using China's CFPS dataset aimed to understand how COVID-19 restrictions have affected smoking habits and what role personality played in this behavior. (Cai and Zhou, 2022).
Other researchers have found that people's attitudes, and perhaps even personality, shape how these restrictions affect their mental health (Giuntella et al, 2021).
Another study surveyed first-year students at the University of Vermont during the pandemic (Rettew et al, 2020). Starting in January 2020, we assessed how personality traits impact student well-being.
This result is similar to the UK study described above. They show that higher levels of extraversion and openness are associated with poorer mental health as the pandemic continues. Those who were less extroverted saw a slight improvement in their mood over time.
Similarly, consistent with the British study, this study also found that neuroticism did not have a negative effect on well-being, but rather showed a positive effect, which is consistent with the results of the Chinese study. Additionally, a slight decrease in mood was reported with increasing levels of agreeableness, but this effect was not very strong.
What does this mean for policy?
This evidence can provide important information for policy decisions. This can help identify groups more vulnerable to mental health problems during a crisis. This helps tailor psychological or psychiatric treatment to an individual's personality traits.
Even beyond the era of Covid-19, mental health is expected to remain a significant concern (Aknin et al, 2021). Therefore, it is important to accurately identify those whose mental health is most severely impaired.
recent editorialslancet It highlights the pressing mental health issues facing China and says these exist within a broader context of largely unaddressed mental health disorders.
This evidence may guide approaches toward more focused and targeted interventions aimed at addressing these significant mental health challenges.
Where can I find more information?
- This article updates an earlier article in the Economic Observatory that focused on the UK and provides a more general explanation of the Big Five personality traits.
- Associations between “big” personality traits and anxiety, depression, and substance use disorders: A meta-analysis: Higher-order personality traits (i.e., neuroticism, extraversion, disinhibition, and conscientiousness) in the Big 3 and Big 5 models Agreeableness, Agreeableness, and Tolerance) and certain depression, anxiety, and substance use disorders in adults.
- Extroverts may be at greater mental health risk during coronavirus lockdown: Article article guardian Based on British research.
- Is the mental health of ethnic minorities worsening as a result of the pandemic? COVID-19 has disproportionately affected the physical and mental health of black, Asian and minority ethnic people in the UK, building on pre-existing conditions. It's making equality worse.
- Personality and life satisfaction: How income differences affect life satisfaction varies by personality. Article by Eugenio Proto and Aldo Rustichini.
- Mental health during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic: Review and recommendations for moving forward: Akunin and co-authors provide seven recommendations (one urgent) to support mental health during the pandemic and beyond. , two short-term and four continuous). .
