People with psychopathic personality traits 'have a disproportionately large impact' on the COVID-19 pandemic because they 'fail to protect themselves and others', study claims

Personality plays a big part in a person's willingness and ability to adhere to social distancing and other coronavirus-related health guidelines, a study has found.  

Researchers found people with psychopathic personality traits such as meanness and disinhibition are more likely to disregard official advice.  

An assessment of more than 500 Americans compared adherence to public health guidelines with a comprehensive review of their personality. 

A score was given for narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy — the so-called Dark Triad — as well as agreeableness and conscientiousness.

Dr Pavel Blagov of Whitman College led the study and found a high psychopathic score was linked to a tendency to ignore and breach public health rules. 

'There may be a minority of people with particular personality styles (on the narcissism and psychopathy spectrum) that have a disproportionate impact on the pandemic by failing to protect themselves and others,' he told PsyPost.  

+2

An assessment of more than 500 Americans compared adherence to public health guidelines with a comprehensive review of their personality. Dr Pavel Blagov of Whitman College led the study and found a high psychopathic score was linked to ignoring and even flagrant breaches of public health rules (file photo)

His analysis found the majority of the public were adhering to official social distancing advice in order to to maintain the safety of friends, family and strangers. 

However, among people who were not listening to the life-saving advice, a trend was spotted. 

The majority of these people scored low for 'agreeableness' and 'conscientiousness' and higher on the psychopathic sub-traits of meanness and disinhibition.

+2

Researchers found people with psychopathic personality traits are more likely to disregard official advice on social distancing. Dr Blagov said: 'There may be a minority of people with particular personality styles (on the narcissism and psychopathy spectrum) that have a disproportionate impact on the pandemic by failing to protect themselves and others'

People that scored highly for these psychotic traits were found to be uninterested in social distancing and other hygiene measures put in place to curb transmission of the coronavirus.    

People who scored highly for meanness and disinhibition are also more likely to touch or sneeze on regularly used surfaces in public, the study found. 

'People scoring high on these traits tended to claim that, if they had COVID-19, they might knowingly or deliberately expose others to it,' Dr Blagov told PsyPost. 

The findings are still preliminary and have been published before peer-review on PsyArxiv.  

The study collected data online between March 20 and 23, before 'the pandemic had become extremely politicised in the US', Dr Blaov said. 

Personality traits are regularly divided into pre-defined categories and compared to behavioural patterns. 

Dr Blagov explains that a person's personality has long been known to influence their behaviour and attitude to health issues. 

Previous research has found people expressing the Dark triad traits sometimes deliberately put the health of others at risk. 

This can include unsafe sexual practices while infected with HIV or other STIs.    

A separate study published in April found a similar trend. 

Lucas de Carvalho from the Universidade São Francisco in Brazil published another pre-print which found extroversion was also a measure of a person's tendency to stick to social distancing. 

The authors write: 'Higher scores for extroversion were associated with lower means for social distancing and higher scores for conscientiousness were associated with higher means for social distancing and handwashing.

'The findings indicate the importance of acknowledging extroversion and conscientiousness traits as relevant to people’s engagement with the measures recommended for COVID-19 containment.'