HEXACO Traits, Big Five Traits, and COVID-19

Trait research on health has primarily focused on chronic diseases, and those findings may not generalize to acute infectious diseases. In the current study, I analyze the correlations between personality traits and attitudes toward COVID-19. Data were collected at the onset of the U.S. epidemic, when COVID-19 was salient to the public. Questionnaires were administered to 172 undergraduates at a public university. These questionnaires measured seven attitudes toward COVID-19, personal risk, and public health. HEXACO trait data had already been collected at this time from all participants, and Big Five data had been collected from a subset of 100 participants. The findings suggest that there are weak-to-moderate correlations but no strong correlations between Big Five traits, HEXACO traits, and attitudes. Conscientiousness was associated with greater trust, and openness with less trust in U.S. and European governments’ preparedness for future epidemics. Openness was also associated with less fear of getting infected after being exposed to a person who had or was exposed to COVID-19. The generalizability of these results is low, but this information may be useful for setting priors in Bayesian statistics for future studies. The findings also pertain to the convergent validity of HEXACO and Big Five trait models.