Dubai, United Arab Emirates (CNN) — There is no doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic has changed many aspects of our lives, from how we socialize to how we do business.
And a new study shows that the pandemic may have changed our personalities, too.
Psychologists have long believed that a person’s traits remain largely the same, even after stressful events.
But by looking at pre-pandemic levels of personality traits such as neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness, and comparing them with data collected during 2021 and 2022, researchers found significant changes in personality among the US population, according to the study.
The pandemic was an “unprecedented opportunity to learn how a stressful collective event can affect personality,” said lead study author Angelina Soutin, a professor of medicine at Florida State University.
The study, which was published Wednesday in the journal “PLOS One”, showed that the traits of extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness all declined in the US population during the two years following the onset of the pandemic, especially among young people.
As for why young people are more affected, Sutin replied that the cause cannot be known for sure, but there are theories.
Character is less stable in young people, but at the same time, the pandemic has disrupted what young people are supposed to do, such as going to school or starting their careers, according to Sutin.
Soutine said the results aren’t accurate for every person, but rather a look at demographics, so it’s not surprising if you don’t see the same change in yourself or those closest to you.
Brent Roberts, a professor of psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the US state of Illinois, who was not involved in the study, said there are some caveats to the data as well.
Given the lack of a reference group and the lack of research into other potential explanations, Roberts considered it difficult to say whether the pandemic would cause these changes.
What is behind the results?
The researchers collected data from more than 7,000 people between the ages of 18 and 109 who participated online in a study called “Understanding America.” The researchers compared how participants answered questions before February 2020 versus later in the same year, and then again in 2021 or 2022, according to the study.
They examined the data through the five-factor model, which assumes that different personality traits can be attributed to one of five overarching traits of neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness.
The researchers found a downward trend in neuroticism in 2020, across the entire participating population, but the changes were small, according to Souten.
Once data for 2021 and 2022 was taken into account, the researchers observed more significant declines in extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness.
And the change was big enough to equate to about a decade of change, according to the study.
Sutin noted that conscientiousness is important for academic and work outcomes, as well as relationships and physical health.
“Increased neuroticism and decreased conscientiousness would mean that this group would be more prone to mental and physical health problems,” Roberts explained.
Questions remain
A society that is less open, compliant and conscientious may not seem promising, but experts say there is still more work to be done to determine how these findings might affect the future.
Sutin said that while researchers note the changes, they can’t say how long the personality difference might last, or whether it will return to what it was before.
What can be learned from the study is that “Personality, while robust, is not static and can respond to changes in the surrounding environment,” explains Roberts.
He added that since there have been changes in society and in the ways in which individuals deal, it is clear that the pandemic has been difficult for everyone.
He continued: “In other words, (people) are not crazy, it has been a difficult few years for all of us, to the point that it has little effect on our personalities.”