COVID pandemic made people meaner, lazier: Study

The coronavirus pandemic has been going on for more than two years, and things just seem generally worse. Each of us has a bit less patience for the foolishness of the others. It’s the prickly feeling that you could be snapped at any second by someone or that you could be the one to snap. On flights, conflicts break out, and reckless driving occurs.

According to recent research that was published in the journal PLOS One, Americans’ personalities have indeed evolved. Their discomfort has increased. We argue more, are less responsible at home and at work, are less willing to talk to complete strangers or phone long-lost friends, and are less enthusiastic about trying new things. COVID-19 made us into thugs.

The Big Five personality traits—agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion, neuroticism, and openness were examined by psychologists to see how the pandemic affected us. These characteristics are typically fairly consistent, which is why they are known as the Big Five.

They change predictably from when we are children to when we reach get-off-my-lawn age, and they can get better after therapy or worse after a significant life trauma. The latest study, however, discovered an unexpected shift during the pandemic, about similar to what they’d anticipate from 10 years of life, not 2. In terms of our psyches, the last few years have been a decade unlike any other.

Prior to COVID, the majority of research on disaster psychology concentrated on post-traumatic stress disorder or mental health. Examining the prevalence of a condition like depression or anxiety is very simple, but personality is different. One issue is that people generally struggle to recall their previous personas.

This study is conducted at the University of Southern California. That gave the team a pre-pandemic baseline to compare their results. Epidemiologists observe that conditions were different during COVID’s primary rivals, the influenza pandemic of 1918 and 1919. For example, influenza wasn’t as persistent as COVID. Single waves appeared in various cities before fading.

Additionally, back then, groups like the American Red Cross could capitalise on the sentiment of patriotism surrounding World War I to shame people into wearing masks; the term “slacker” was first coined in 1918 to condemn anti-maskers.

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