Differential personality change earlier and later in the coronavirus pandemic in a longitudinal sample of adults in the United States

ABSTRACT: Five-factor model personality traits (neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, conscientiousness) are thought to be relatively impervious to environmental demands in adulthood. The coronavirus pandemic is an unprecedented opportunity to examine whether personality changed during a stressful global event. Surprisingly, two previous studies found that neuroticism decreased early in the pandemic, whereas there was less evidence for change in the other four traits during this period. The present research used longitudinal assessments of personality from the Understanding America Study (N = 7,109; 18,623 assessments) to examine personality changes relatively earlier (2020) and later (2021–2022) in the pandemic compared to pre-pandemic levels. Replicating the two previous studies, neu

SUBMITTER: Sutin A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9518853 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature