How COVID Changed Our Very Personalities

I can’t begin to tell you how many times over the last three years or so I’ve said something along the lines of, “What has happened to people?”

Now we know.

In a new study featured in the journal PLOS One, psychologists found population-wide personality shifts in the wake of the pandemic. Using a widely accepted model for studying personality known as the Big Five Inventory, they measured five different dimensions of personality: neuroticism (stress), extroversion (connecting with others), openness (creative thinking), agreeableness (being trusting), and conscientiousness (being organized, disciplined and responsible).

For the most part, major personality traits remain relatively stable throughout life, apart from the changes associated with young adulthood or when uniquely stressful personal life events take place. Researchers were curious to see if they would find personality changes in the second and third year of the pandemic.

“And we did. There was a completely different pattern change,” says study author Angelina Sutin, an assistant professor of behavioral sciences and social medicine at the Florida State University College of Medicine.

As the pandemic progressed, researchers found

“significant declines in the traits that help us navigate social situations, trust others, think creatively, and act responsibly. These changes were especially pronounced among young adults.

“Sutin hypothesizes that personality traits may have changed as public sentiment about the pandemic shifted. ‘The first year [of the pandemic] there was this real coming together,’ Sutin says. ‘But in the second year, with all of that support falling away and then the open hostility and social upheaval around restrictions... all the collective good will that we had, we lost, and that might have been very significant for personality.’”

What is normal and healthy in development or maturation is for stress (neuroticism) to decrease, and for dynamics such as connecting with others, creative thinking, being trusting, and being organized, disciplined and responsible to increase.

The opposite happened on all five fronts. Stress increased, and extroversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness all declined across the entire U.S. population.

To be clear, while the COVID crisis could have been the driving force for this personality change, there are many other factors that also may have contributed, including the shift to virtual school and work, economic challenges, political divides, and issues related to race.

It’s unclear at this time whether this is a true, long-term personality change or “short-term shock.” Let’s hope and pray for the “short-term shock.” But at the very least we know one thing for sure:

Something really did happen to people.

James Emery White

Sources

Angelina R. Sutin, Yannick Stephan, et.al., “Differential Personality Change Earlier and Later in the Coronavirus Pandemic in a Longitudinal Sample of Adults in the United States,” PLOS One, September 28, 2022, read online.

Maggie Mertens, “Personalities Don’t Usually Change Quickly but They May Have During the Pandemic,” NPR, October 5, 2022, read online.

About the Author

James Emery White is the founding and senior pastor of Mecklenburg Community Church in Charlotte, NC, and a former professor of theology and culture at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, where he also served as their fourth president. His latest book After “I Believe” is now available on Amazon or your favorite bookseller. To enjoy a free subscription to the Church & Culture blog, visit churchandculture.org, where you can view past blogs in our archive, read the latest church and culture news from around the world, and listen to the Church & Culture Podcast. Follow Dr. White on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at @JamesEmeryWhite.

The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of CrosswalkHeadlines.

James Emery White is the founding and senior pastor of Mecklenburg Community Church in Charlotte, NC, and a former professor of theology and culture at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, where he also served as their fourth president. His latest book, Hybrid Church: Rethinking the Church for a Post-Christian Digital Age, is now available on Amazon or from your favorite bookseller. To enjoy a free subscription to the Church & Culture blog, visit churchandculture.org where you can view past blogs in our archive, read the latest church and culture news from around the world, and listen to the Church & Culture Podcast. Follow Dr. White on X, Facebook and Instagram at @JamesEmeryWhite.