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According to a study conducted by Estonian scientists in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, dozens of personality traits can predict people’s decisions to get vaccinated. While the study emphasises the importance of not labelling people, a better understanding of people’s internal inclinations may help address obstacles preventing them from getting vaccinated.
“I absolutely do not believe that our ultimate goal should be to pressure people to behave in the manner that the government, scientists or anyone else wants,” said Kadri Arumäe, a research fellow in Health Behaviour at the University of Tartu and the first author of the study. “It is important to preserve freedom of choice so that everyone can make the right decisions for themselves. Rather, such research can help us find potential points of intervention.”
“I absolutely do not believe that our ultimate goal should be to pressure people to behave in the manner that the government, scientists or anyone else wants. It is important to preserve their freedom of choice so that everyone can make the right decisions for themselves.”
She recently conducted a study with psychologists from the University of Tartu and researchers from the Estonian Biobank on how people’s decisions to protect themselves against the coronavirus with a vaccine correlate with measurable traits of two personality models.
The more well-known Big Five personality traits describe people according to five characteristics: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. A few years ago, with the assistance of personality psychology professor René Mõttus, the 100NP was developed, measuring not only the Big Five but also many smaller nuances of personality. Among many other traits, this test measures whether a person considers themselves attractive or tends to rebel against authority. It offers a summary of almost 200 narrow personality traits.
In total, researchers analysed nearly 57,000 individuals. For 17,000 of them, it was possible to compare their responses with personality assessments provided by their close acquaintances, such as spouses or friends.
According to Arumäe, conventional sociological studies can also provide insight into people’s attitudes regarding vaccination. “Personality traits are unique because they tend to be very stable within an individual,” Arumäe explained, justifying the importance of personality studies. “By examining people’s long-term perceptions of the world, thought patterns, emotions and behaviours, we can gain a better understanding of the internal tendencies that either favour or oppose vaccination.”
Based on the study, the broad domains of the Big Five personality model play a relatively minor role in people’s decisions to vaccinate. However, it cannot be completely ruled out that the limitations in the methodology of the study may have contributed to this result. “Vaccinated people were slightly more neurotic and agreeable, but less open to experiences,” Arumäe said. “We can’t claim that absolutely nothing can be predicted based on the Big Five, just not very accurately.”
More decisively, it can be concluded that better predictions can be made based on narrow personality traits. While traditional demographic indicators such as age, sex and education could predict vaccination with 62% accuracy, incorporating personality traits increased this to 71%. Arumäe added, “The good news for personality researchers is that personality traits add predictive power to demographic indicators, and not just by a little, but substantially.”
“The good news for us personality researchers is that personality traits add predictive power to demographic indicators, and not just by a little, but substantially.”
The results may not seem surprising if you consider the measured traits and compare it to previous studies. Those who believe that all events can be scientifically explained or who support politically liberal candidates are more likely to get vaccinate. Individuals who defy authority, take more risks or consider themselves spiritual were less likely to be vaccinated.
“It’s not entirely unexpected. What surprised me the most was the sheer number of these associations,” Arumäe stated. “62 personality traits were associated with vaccination, or nearly a third out of the 200, even after accounting for education, sex and age.” An analogy can be made with genetic variants that elevate disease risk. Even if each allele has a tiny effect on its own, their overall impact is clear. Similarly, interventions such as cholesterol-lowering medication can have benefits on the population level, even if its effect on an individual is marginal.
One strength of the study highlighted by the authors was the involvement of people close to the participants. Personality tests are occasionally criticised for not being completely objective. People often want to present themselves in a favourable light. However, in this study, Arumäe found that similar associations were emerged with both the participants’ self-reports and the assessments provided by their acquaintances. This implies that participants responded honestly and that their close acquaintances see the same behaviours, thoughts and feelings in them as the participants themselves. Thus, the acquaintances’ assessments further confirmed the main personality traits associated with vaccination.
“Combining personality studies’ findings with overall vaccination statistics helpsidentify the most ethical and efficient methods to increase vaccination rates.”
On a more philosophical level, these findings could inform people’s personal attitudes. Because demographic groups are so diverse, making generalisations based on a few external indicators is often unjustified. “Such labelling should be avoided. For example, among people without a higher education, those who had intellectual interests, such as reading or political discussions, were more likely to be vaccinated,” Arumäe explained. “Personality traits seem to have the potential to compensate for demographic trends.”
Looking ahead, the researcher emphasised ethical considerations when planning vaccination campaigns. “Rather than directing advertisements specifically to people with lower levels of education or specific personality traits, we should consider the associations with personality traits when designing general vaccination campaigns,” Kadri Arumäe concluded. “Combining personality studies’ findings with overall vaccination statistics helps identify the most ethical and efficient methods for increasing vaccination rates.”
Scientific paper that this article is based on, can be found HERE.
This article was originally published on the Estonian Public Broadcasting online news portal. Written by: Jaan-Juhan Oidermaa
Read more about how your personality affects leadership goals from our webpage HERE.
