According to research, the impact of the Covid epidemic may have altered people's personality.
The link between stress and personality change has not been found before. The long grind of social isolation seems to have made an impact.
According to the study, young adults became more prone to stress, less cooperative and trusting, and less restrained and responsible.
The assessment of personality from 7,109 people in the Understanding America Study was used by Sutin and colleagues during the Pandemic. The personality test measures neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness
The pre-pandemic, early and later in the Pandemic tests were taken by participants aged 18 to 99 years old.
During the first phase of the Pandemic, personality was relatively stable, with only a small decline in neuroticism compared with pre-Pandemic. The authors suggested that Covid could be to blame for people feeling anxious.
The reduction in neuroticism had disappeared by the second half of the epidemic, according to the study. A tenth of a standard deviation is equivalent to a decade of fluctuations. The oldest group of adults had no noticeable changes in their personality.
The authors say that personality tends to be more flexible in younger adults and that the Pandemic may have had a more negative impact on this age group.
The Pandemic disrupted some of the tasks of younger adulthood, such as school and the transition into the workforce. This disruption may have had a bigger impact on younger adults because these tasks are very important for this age group.
The researchers will keep an eye on the cohort to see if the personality changes are lasting.
A psychologist who was not involved in the research said that it was interesting to see the average effect. Not having the normal formative experiences puts development on hold, according to one interpretation. It will be interesting to see if these qualities come back to life.
The journal publishes the findings.
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