Personality traits predict perception of pandemic risk and compliance with infection control measures

Personality traits influence our outlook and choices in life, and may also influence how we evaluate and respond to an extreme event such as the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Here we combined big five personality measures from a large nationally representative sample taken before the onset of the pandemic with measures of perceived risk and compliance four months into the pandemic. We predicted that low extraversion, low openness, and high neuroticism would predict higher perceived risk. We further predicted that high conscientiousness, low extraversion, high agreeableness, high openness, and high neuroticism would predict higher compliance. To control for flexibility in the analysis and reporting of the many possible associations, the hypotheses and analysis plans were reviewed and approved before aligning the two datasets (a registered report format). Our results supported that conscientiousness and agreeableness was associated with compliance. Low extraversion was associated with compliance to instructions to avoid social interactions (a variant of a registered hypothesis). Neuroticism was associated with seeing the pandemic as a larger risk. Thus, associations between personality and health behaviour frequently seen in past research predicted risk and compliance in a pandemic setting, while associations with less support in the literature were less reliable.