Covid-19 Pandemic Might Have Altered These Personality Traits Of Young Adults

Healthcare Covid-19 Pandemic Might Have Altered These Personality Traits Of Young Adults Anuradha Varanasi Contributor Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. Anuradha writes about environmental health disparities & epidemiology Following New! Follow this author to stay notified about their latest stories. Got it! Oct 24, 2022, 03:08am EDT | New! Click on the conversation bubble to join the conversation Got it! Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin NEW YORK, NY – APRIL 10: The streets of Manhattan stand nearly empty due to the coronavirus epidemic .

. . [+] on April 10, 2020 in New York City.

According to John Hopkins University, the global death toll from COVID-19 has now reached 100,000 worldwide with many experts believing that the number is actually higher. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images) Getty Images A recent study published in the journal PLOS One found that the pre-pandemic personalities of young adults had far more positive traits as opposed to the shift that was observed in their personality traits since 2020. A group of U.

S. -based researchers noted declines in extraversion, openness, conscientiousness, and agreeableness in their data that detailed the participants’ personality traits from 2021-22 as opposed to pre-pandemic personality. “Over a year of restrictions on social gatherings–either mandated or self-imposed over safety concerns–may have culminated in feeling less temperamentally outgoing than before the pandemic.

Likewise, it might have taken more time for the lack of structure and fewer immediate responsibilities to consolidate into declines in conscientiousness,” the researchers wrote in their study. “It may also be the case that, before the pandemic, external structures that supported schedules and routines were perceived as the individual’s level of conscientiousness. Without this stability and structure, it may be harder to organize and follow through on responsibilities.

The changes observed in 2021–2022 may be the accumulation of changes in daily life that took more time to culminate in trait decline,” they added. In the past, some researchers have argued that personal stressful and/or traumatic events might be associated with an individual’s personality changing and not collective events like natural disasters or pandemics. To further analyze whether collective events that globally impacted hundreds of millions of people could alter certain personality traits, the researchers enrolled 7,109 participants who were a part of the online Understanding America Study.

The participants are from across the U. S. and were encouraged to be a part of the study by the University of Southern California.

MORE FOR YOU Livestream Shopping Stays Hot As Whatnot Valuation More Than Doubles To $3. 7 Billion How Industrial-Era Management Kills The Entrepreneurial Spirit The Top 5 Metaverse Trends In 2023 The participants were in the age group of 18 to 109 years old. More than half of them were women and around 41% were male.

Each one of them had their personality measured at least once before the pandemic began. This study’s researchers used a five-factor model of personality traits that compares neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness between 2014 to 2020 and yet again from 2021-2022. They then carried out a total of 18,623 assessments which came down to a mean of around 2.

6 for each participant. The researchers calculated a slight decrease in neuroticism — which is characterized by emotional instability, anxiety, irritability, anger, and depression. But along with that, there were also declines in the participants’ ability to display openness, agreeableness, extraversion, and conscientiousness.

“The beneficial effect of the pandemic on neuroticism dissipated, whereas there was a significant decline in the other four traits compared to before the pandemic. Importantly, significant age differences also emerged that indicated that the decline in neuroticism in 2020 was the largest for older adults. Whereas the decline in the other four traits in 2021 was apparent in middle-aged and particularly younger adults,” the researchers wrote in the paper.

When it comes to significant declines in openness and agreeableness, the researchers attributed these trends to the social upheaval that the pandemic has been causing — particularly between 2021-2022. “The continued uncertainty around the pandemic, particularly as it dragged into a second year, as well as the decline in mobility, may have led individuals to narrow their activities and worldviews,” they concluded. “Likewise, there may have been a decrease in interest in art and artistic experiences because of less ability to engage in art due to closures of concert venues, museums, theaters, etc.

The move to online communication and entertainment and reliance on social media may have decreased exposure to new ideas,” the researchers added. Follow me on Twitter . Anuradha Varanasi Editorial Standards Print Reprints & Permissions.