Adherence to COVID-19 mitigation measures: The role of sociodemographic and personality factors.

The current COVID-19 pandemic caught the decision makers in many countries sub-optimally prepared to respond. To better cope with similar situations in the future, it is vital to understand the major predictors of health-beneficial behavior and adherence to imposed mitigation measures and guidelines. To tailor the promotion of government-imposed measures, it is important to understand how the sociodemographic background combined with personality traits affect the perception and responsiveness of people. We investigated the perception and adherence to mitigation measures during the pandemic by examining their trends across several sociodemographic categories and personality dimensions. The strongest predictors of confidence in the preventive measures and their implementation were the participants' concern of infection and concern of infecting their loved ones, followed by gender and age. Education, settlement size, field and type of employment, household type, own medical problems, and the age and health of the participants' loved ones had a smaller influence on the perceived guidelines importance and implementation. Adherence to measures was positively related to the participants' score in conscientiousness and, in lesser extent, openness. Agreeableness, energy, and emotional stability correlated positively with adherence to basic guidelines. Study provides information useful for developing and adapting future public health policies and interventions. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-021-02051-5.

Sex-specific developmental trajectories in an extremely sexually size dimorphic spider.

Adult body size, development time, and growth rates are components of organismal life histories, which crucially influence fitness and are subject to trade-offs. If selection is sex-specific, male and female developments can eventually lead to different optimal sizes. This can be achieved through developmental plasticity and sex-specific developmental trajectories. Spiders present suitable animals to study differences in developmental plasticity and life history trade-offs between the sexes, because of their pronounced sexual dimorphism. Here, we examine variation in life histories in the extremely sexually size dimorphic African hermit spider (Nephilingis cruentata) reared under standardized laboratory conditions. Females average 70 times greater body mass (and greater body size) at maturity than males, which they achieve by developing longer and growing faster. We find a small to moderate amount of variability in life history traits to be caused by family effects, comprising genetic, maternal, and early common environmental effects, suggesting considerable plasticity in life histories. Remarkably, family effects explain a higher variance in male compared to female life histories, implying that female developmental trajectories may be more responsive to environment. We also find sex differences in life history trade-offs and show that males with longer development times grow larger but exhibit shorter adult longevity. Female developmental time also correlates positively with adult body mass, but the trade-offs between female adult mass, reproduction, and longevity are less clear. We discuss the implications of these findings in the light of evolutionary trade-offs between life history traits.

COVID-19 Pandemic and Lockdown: Associations With Personality and Stress Components.

The present study examines the role of personality traits, interpersonal relationships, and sociodemographic factors on perceived stress, related to COVID-19, and compliance with measures to mitigate its spread. Data were collected in the midst of the 'first wave' lockdown, with the survey completed in full by 963 participants. We measured stress, directly related to the pandemic, rather than general stress, and were able to distinguish between symptoms of emotional, behavioural, cognitive, physical stress, and alienation with high concordance. We included personality scoring with standardized T-scores, allowing for cross-study comparison, and a broader questionnaire on the participants' support for COVID-19 mitigation measures. Results of the multiple regression models indicated that low emotional stability and introversion, and high conscientiousness, common conflicts with loved ones, and some demographics (female gender, middle age, chronic health problems) correspond to elevated stress. Conscientiousness was positively associated with total stress and some of its components, whereas opposite results were found for emotional stability. Extraversion was negatively correlated to total stress, its emotional and physical components, and alienation. Surprisingly, increased stress was not related to greater measure adherence. The present results shed light on how personality, interpersonal relationships, and sociodemographic factors influence people's stress response during a pandemic.