Hardly a day passes in pandemic-ridden America without new video of crazy people refusing to wear masks and to maintain social distance in public. They’ve been dubbed the “Karens” and “Kevins” who defiantly resist rules (of the store, county, or state — the federal government is not engaged with addressing the pandemic with more than empty words) to take precautions for the sake of fellow citizens who want to minimize their chances of contracting COVID-19. The truth, unfortunately, is not as funny as the “ad” below.
These “Karens” walk among us. They are us, despite lamentations that this is “not the America I know.” No sense denying it any longer. They are us. We are the problem. Selfishness is an ugly American personality trait. Selfishness, on dominant display in certain regions of the country, is honestly present in every corner of every location. This ugliness and our inability to appeal to our prosocial, altruistic nature is certain to extend the pandemic’s grip on our country keeping us lagging well behind the other/more advanced nations in the world.
Why cannot reasonable people see that the demise or prolongation of the spread of this viral disease is something we can control?
A partial answer is the personality of the ones who resist science-directed steps to cut community spread of COVID-19. Are the Karens so different from the rest of us?
“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.”
Isaac Asimov
The Study
Researcher Pavel Blagov, PhD (at Whitman College), paid 652 online “crowdsourced” workers who volunteered to complete a survey through U.S. Mechanical Turk (MTurk) — an Amazon company. Of those in the original sample, 502 completed all the quality checks done by the researcher. The resulting sample was 77.5% White and 72.5% denied having risk-enhancing conditions for COVID-19.
Participants completed several measures: items regarding current health behavior (taking precautions against the virus); future likelihood into the next 2 weeks of continuing current behaviors; items eliciting likelihood of being COVID carrier; rated the personal appeal of five different messages concerning COVID (self-centered – put your health first, responsible – obligatory personal responsibility, compassionate – protect the vulnerable, avoidant – avoid others and their germs, sociable – socialize from a distance); a measure of the Five Factor Model of personality with computations of personality superfactors Stability and Plasticity (see below); the Abbreviated Measure of Psychopathy (AMP – Boldness, Meanness and Disinhibition); and a measure of the Dark Triad (see below).
The Five Factor Model (the NEO)
Neuroticism domain
Emotional reactivity in distressing circumstances
Extraversion domain
Energy & enthusiasm in dealing with people
Openness (to Experience) domain
Cognitive style of curiosity, imagination, abstractness vs. closed, concrete
Agreeableness domain
Cooperation and social harmony
Conscientiousness domain
Control, self-regulation, impulsivity
The Dark Triad
sub-clinical expression of “dark personality” traits
Narcissism
An inflated sense of self, superiority
Antisocial (psychopathy)
Cruel, hostile, mean, remorse- & guilt-free
Machiavellian
Exploitation of others for personal gain
Study Results
Current health behaviors (compliance with social distancing and hygiene) predicted by synergistic high levels of Agreeableness (that entails empathic concern for others) and Conscientiousness (with its self-regulation and industrious self-efficacy).
Harmful behaviors (Karen-like tactics endangering self and others) were predicted by Psychopathology, Meanness and Disinhibition. People least concerned with protecting others were highest on Meanness, Disinhibition, and Machiavellianism. This may be involved with risk-taking, imagining themselves being disease carriers. Meanness and Disinhibition were most closely linked to putting others in danger.
The two highest rated messages were Compassionate (favored twice as often as the others) and Sociable. The appeal of all messages was predicted by the super factors Stability and Plasticity. Agreeableness and Conscientiousness predicted the appeal of the Compassionate message. For most people, the Compassionate message should appeal. However, it backfires for antagonistic individuals (those highest on Meanness, Disinhibition, Narcissism and Machiavellianism traits).
Thus, the obvious and intuitive is true. Antagonistic people (Karens and Kevins) whose antagonism can be assessed using the above personality measures are the ones oblivious to public health appeals to our better altruistic nature. To them, it’s hogwash.
Blagov, P. S. (2020). Adaptive and dark personality in the COVID-19 pandemic: Predicting health-behavior endorsement and the appeal of public-health messages. Social Psychological and Personality Science. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1177/1948550620936439
Veterans of workplace bullying experiences will recognize the Dark Triad collection of dark personality traits. They accurately define their perpetrators, bullies, and assailants.
They did it back then! We can do it again!
P.S. To read the science about how well masks work to prevent COVID, Read Here.
