502. Why are conservatives less afraid of Covid-19?

 There have been several studies of the effect of personality on the experience of Covid-19 and the measures taken against it.

 There is an intriguing phenomenon, shown by studies in the US (Hamilton and Safford 2020, Conway et al. 2020), that conservatives feel less threatened by Covid than liberals, while in other cases of disease they feel more threatened. The explanation was that this came from ideology, not experience such as perveived medical and economic vulnerability (Conway et al. 2020). Conservatives were against government intervention and aid to victims of economic decline, and this resulted in more disregard or indifference concerning Covid. On the basis of a survey of 1000 participants, Conway et al. found that 42 % of republicans feared own or family exposure, 73% of democrats, and 64% of independents. Hamilton and Safford 2020) found that 87% of people who voted for Clinton in 2016 had trust in science agencies during the pandemic, vs. 62% of those who voted for Trump. Qian and Yahara (2020) also found that conservative ideology has a negative effect on stress and anxiety, and a positive effect on feeling that information was sufficient, and on confidence in doctors. Blagov (2020) also found it.

 For the personality trait of extraversion, action orientation, Blagov (2020) found aversiveness to social distancing. This finding accords well with what was found in the other studies. Agreeableness and conscientiousness predicted endorsement of social distancing and hygiene. Blagov also investigated the effects of ‘dark personalities’.(psychopathy, meanness, disinhibition). Most participants preferred a message appealing to compassion, but dark traits predicted lower appeal. Dark traits predicted low endorsement of social distancing, and the intent to knowingly expose others to risk.

 Blagov (2020) used the term ‘adaptive’ for personality traits that have positive effects on mental health, and on beliefs and conduct that are conducive to the perception of Covid risk and positive response to remedial behaviour and corresponding public messages. Summing up, adaptive effects were consistently found across studies of the traits of conscientiousness and agreeableness, and maladaptive effects of neuroticism. Extraversion may yield aversion to health policies and related messages, for their interference with freedom. Openness/intelligence has mixed effects, as it does in studies of other phenomena.

 On the basis of 1041 self-reports Murphy et al. (2020), investigating the effect of Covid on generalised anxiety disorder and depression during the first week of lockdown in Ireland, found the following effects of demographic factors: A positive effect of low age, and female gender. They found higher levels of anxiety among those older than 65 than those 18-34 years old. Concerning demographic factors, Qian and Yahara (2020) found the following:

Age had a negative effect on stress, anxiety, depression, prevention behaviour, medical sufficiency, likelihood of infection, survival and concern about family, and positive on epidemic consciousness, material sufficieny and confidence in doctors. Males had a higher score than females on epidemic consciousness, evaluation of others, medical sufficiency. confidence in doctors and underestimation.of the risk. Females had a higher score on preventive behaviour, health status, likelihood of infection and concern for family. Concerning marital status, unmarried and divorced or widowed people had more stress, anxiety and depression, and married people had a higher score on epidemic consciousness, preventive behavior, material sufficiency, health status, concern for family. and influence on life. Fairness was positive on depression and negative on material and information sufficiency. High education yielded more epidemic consciousness, evaluation of others, material sufficiency, confidence in doctors and likelihood of survival. Everett et al. (2020 found that. older and more religious people had stronger positive intentions, and black people more than whites.

 For a summary of studies, it is convenient to use Blagov’s notion of adaptability, with comparatively positive effects on mental health, perception of the epidemic, taking precautions. There is considerable agreement between the studies: Across studies, conscientiousness and agreeability were found to be adaptive, and neuroticism maladaptive Extraversion can lead to disobedience or disregard of rules, unless combind with conscientiousness or agreeableness. Openness/intelligence has mixed effects, as it does in other areas.

 A more extensive discussion is given on the essay page of my website bartnooteboom.nl

  Blagov, P.S. 2020, ‘Adaptive and dark personality in the Covid-19 pandemic: Predicting health behavior endorsement and the appeal of pubic-health messages.’, Journal of Social Psychological and Personality Science, an advance publication.

  Conway III, L.G., S.R. Woodward, A Zubrod, and L. Chan 2020, Why are conservatives less

concerned about the Corona virus (Covid-19) than liberals?: testing experiential versus

political explanations, PsyArXiv Preprints.

  Hamilton, L.C. and T.G. Safford 2020, ‘Ideology affects trust in science agencies during a

pandemic’, The Carsey School of Public Policy at the scholars’repository`, 391.

  Murphy, J., T. Karatnias, P. Hyland, M, Shevlin, O. McBride, Bendill, A.Martinez and F Vallieres, 2020, ‘Anxiety and depression in th Republic of Ireland during the Covid-19 panmdemic’, Acta Pychiatrica Scandinavia, 1-8.

  Qian, K. and T. Yahara. 2020, ‘Mentality and behaviour in Civid-19, emerging status in

Japan: influence of personality, morality and ideology’, Plos One.17/t e0235883