Big Five e COVID-19: uma análise de dados de perfis psicométricos de países e sua relação com a pandemia

Abstract

Personality traits, at the level of the individual, are important subjective characteristics, which in part explain the observed behavioral differences between human beings. At aggregated levels, evidence points out that such traits can be used as a way of characterizing different cultures and that they even present correlations with indices of political freedom of societies. At critical moments such as the current Covid-19 pandemic, it is important to understand the factors that can influence population behavior. In the present work, the relationship between the psychometric profiles of different countries – analyzed using aggregated personality traits – and variables related to responses to the pandemic of the new coronavirus was investigated. Three hypotheses were tested using different statistical approaches: the first of these was to determine whether there is any significant relationship between personality traits of nations and national vaccination rates using linear regression models. The second hypothesis sought to determine the effectiveness of social isolation policies based on personality profiles. Hierarchical clustering techniques were applied to identify countries with similar psychometric profiles. Then, using spatial regression models, the effectiveness of mobility restriction policies adopted by countries was analyzed using spatial regimes defined by the clusters found. The third hypothesis investigated, using regression models on panel data, the interaction between the response to mobility restriction policies and national personality traits.