Being Nice or Being Scared? Personality Traits, Beliefs and Threat of COVID-19 as Predictors of Non-Normative Health Behaviors during Second Wave of Pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need to examine factors related to questionable health behavior, such as avoiding recommended preventive guidelines. This paper aimed to explore whether behavior reflecting active avoidance of preventive measures against COVID-19 (curfew regulations, hygiene, facial masks, and social distancing) was best predicted by personality traits (Big Five), health beliefs, or feelings of threat. Thousand and twenty-four adults (486 men, 536 women) aged between 18 – 81 years participated in the study, which was run in early November 2020, when the second wave in Slovakia started to gain momentum and a strict lockdown was issued. Results showed that health threat was connected with having fewer questionable health beliefs, while economic threat was connected with having more questionable health beliefs, and together these factors were the strongest predictors of avoiding preventive regulations. From personality traits, higher Extraversion and lower Agreeableness predicted questionable health behavior, but together they added only 2.4% of explained variance. Our results highlight the fact that one year after the outbreak, the COVID-19 pandemic is no longer only (if it ever was) a health threat. The shift from health focus to the economic and socio-political threat should not be taken lightly, as it has implications for adherence to preventive measures against COVID-19 and people’s beliefs regarding the pandemic.