Young adults have reportedly become less pleasant and less aware of the world around them since the start of the Covid-19 epidemic.
- Due to the Covid-19 epidemic, life expectancy has fallen in 2020, particularly in the East and South of the European Union.
- Participants were 41.2% male and ranged in age from 18 to 109.
Psychologists have long believed that certain character traits of a person cannot change, even after experiencing stressful events. But recently, researchers from Florida State University College of Medicine (USA) found personality changes in the American population. To reach this conclusion, they carried out a study published in the journal Plos One.
“The coronavirus outbreak is an opportunity to examine whether personality can change during a stressful world event,” wrote the scientists. As part of this work, they analyzed long personality assessments carried out during a cohort, called “Understanding America”, which involved 7,109 people. Their aim was to examine whether personality changes occur relatively early, i.e. in 2020, or later, i.e. in 2021 and 2022, during the pandemic. For this, they studied five personality traits: neuroticism, extroversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness.
Covid: 5 personality traits have changed because of the pandemic
The team saw few personality changes in 2020. During this year, “the neurosis has decreased very slightly compared to previous years”, she clarified. In 2021 and 2022, the other four personality traits also changed. “Changes were moderated by age. Young adults exhibited disturbed maturity,” can we read in the study.
According to the authors, if these changes are long-lasting, this suggests that stressful population-wide events can alter personality slightly, especially in young adults. “Young adults have become more moody and more prone to stress, less cooperative and trusting, and less responsible,” did they conclude in a statement.
