This study examined the associations between personality traits and psychological and behavioural responses to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic. Personality was assessed in January/February 2020 when the public was not aware of the spread of coronavirus in the USA. Participants were reassessed in late March 2020 with four sets of questions about the pandemic: concerns, precautions, preparatory behaviours, and duration estimates. The sample consisted of N = 2066 participants (mean age = 51.42; range = 18–98; 48.5% women). Regression models were used to analyse the data with age, gender, education, race, and ethnicity as covariates. Consistent with the preregistered hypotheses, higher neuroticism was related to more concerns and longer duration estimates related to COVID‐19, higher extraversion was related to shorter duration estimates, and higher conscientiousness was associated with more precautions. In contrast to the preregistered hypotheses, higher neuroticism was associated with fewer precautions and unrelated to preparatory behaviours. Age moderated several trait–response associations, suggesting that some of the responses were associated more strongly in older adults, a group at risk for complications of COVID‐19. For example, older adults high in conscientiousness prepared more. The present findings provide insights into how personality predicts concerns and behaviours related to the COVID‐19 pandemic. © 2020 European Association of Personality Psychology

A sedentary lifestyle is harmful for health; personality traits may contribute to physical (in)activity. With participant-level data from 16 samples (N>125,000), we examined the personality correlates of physical inactivity, frequency of physical activity, and sedentary behavior (in a subset of samples). Lower Neuroticism and higher Conscientiousness were associated with more physical activity and less inactivity and sedentary behavior. Extraversion and Openness were also associated with more physical activity and less inactivity, but these traits were mostly unrelated to specific sedentary behaviors (e.g., TV watching). The results generally did not vary by age or sex. The findings support the notion that the interest, motivational, emotional, and interpersonal processes assessed by five-factor model traits partly shape the individual’s engagement in physical activity.

Personality is associated with cognitive decline in older adults, with effects comparable to established clinical and lifestyle risk factors.

Discrimination based on weight is a stressful social experience linked to declines in physical and mental health. We examine whether this harmful association extends to risk of mortality. Participants in the Health and Retirement Study (HRS; N=13,692) and the Midlife in the United States Study (MIDUS; N=5,079) reported on discriminatory experiences and attributed those experiences to personal characteristics, including weight. Weight discrimination was associated with a nearly 60% increased mortality risk in both HRS (HR=1.57, 95% CI=1.34-1.84) and MIDUS (HR=1.59, 95% CI=1.09-2.31) that was not accounted for by common physical and psychological risk factors. The association between weight discrimination and mortality was generally stronger than for other attributions for discrimination. In addition to poor health outcomes, weight discrimination may shorten life expectancy.

Objective To examine whether perceived discrimination based on multiple personal characteristics is associated with physical, emotional, and cognitive health concurrently, prospectively, and with change in health over time among older adults. Design : Longitudinal Setting Health and Retirement Study (HRS) Participants Participants (N=7,622) who completed the Leave-Behind Questionnaire as part of the 2006 HRS assessment (mean age 67); participants (n=6,450) completed the same health measures again in 2010. Measurements Participants rated their everyday experience with discrimination and attributed those experiences to eight personal characteristics: race, ancestry, sex, age, weight, physical disability, appearance, and/or sexual orientation. At both the 2006 and 2010 assessments, participants completed measures of physical health (subjective health, disease burden), emotional health (life satisfaction, loneliness), and cognitive health (memory, mental status). Results Discrimination based on age, weight, physical disability, and appearance was associated with poor subjective health, greater disease burden, lower life satisfaction and greater loneliness at both assessments and with declines in health across the four years. Discrimination based on race, ancestry, sex, and sexual orientation was associated with greater loneliness at both time points, but not with change over time. Discrimination was mostly unrelated to cognitive health. Conclusions The detrimental effect of discrimination on physical and emotional health is not limited to young adulthood but continues to contribute to health and well-being in old age. These effects were driven primarily by discrimination based on personal characteristics that change over time (e.g., age, weight) rather than discrimination based on more stable characteristics (e.g., race, sex).