COVID-19 changed young people’s personalities for the worse, study suggests

The shift that researchers found in the personalities of young adults is roughly equivalent to a decade's worth of personality changes.

When the COVID-19 pandemic began, it changed everything. Work moved from the office to the home, socializing with friends meant hopping on a Zoom call, and even going outside for groceries could put your health at risk.

Now, a new study is suggesting that the pandemic also changed our personalities.

The study, published in PLOS One, measured changes in the Big Five traits, a common tool used by researchers to analyze personality. The traits are neuroticism, extroversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness. Past research indicates that as people mature into adulthood, they become less extroverted, neurotic and open but become more agreeable and conscientious.

The pandemic presented researchers with the opportunity to study how collective stress can impact a person’s personality. They analyzed survey results from over 7,100 U.S. adults aged 18 to 109 taken during 2020, 2021 and 2022, and compared them to years before the pandemic.

During 2020, analysis of the surveys found that peoples’ personalities were relatively consistent, but researchers found significant changes during the 2021-2022 period.

Adults aged 18 to 64 became less extroverted, agreeable and conscientious in 2021 and 2022, and adults under 30 in particular become more neurotic during that period. This degree of change, the researchers said, is roughly equivalent to a decade’s worth of personality changes.

“Becoming more mature is declining in neuroticism and increasing in agreeableness and conscientiousness, and we see the opposite for younger adults in the second year of the pandemic,” said Angelina Sutin, the lead author of the study and a Florida State University professor, in an interview.

These personality shifts have researchers worried because they may have adverse effects on the personal lives and mental health of young adults. Conscientiousness is important for forming good relationships and working well with others is a major factor in succeeding in the workplace and at school. Sutin says that neuroticism “is a very consistent predictor of mental health outcomes like depression and anxiety.”