性情大变，容易emo？可能是疫情惹的祸！

长期以来，心理学家认为人的性格特征基本稳定，即便在经历压力事件后也保持不变。然而，最新一项研究表明，新冠疫情让人们的性格发生了关键性改变。

这一结论是如何得出的？它又有什么现实意义？我们一起看文章。

People experienced some key personality changes during the pandemic, study finds

研究发现，疫情期间人们性格发生了一些关键性改变

Covid-19 changed a lot – how we socialized, where we went, and even what work looked like. A new study shows the pandemic may have changed our personalities as well.

新冠疫情带来了很多改变：我们的社交方式，我们去的地方，甚至我们的工作方式。一项新的研究表明，这场疫情可能还改变了我们的性格。

Psychologists have long believed that a person’s traits stayed pretty much the same, even in the wake of stressful events. But by looking at pre-pandemic levels of neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness and comparing that to data collected in 2021 and 2022, researchers found notable personality changes among the United States population, according to the study.

长期以来，心理学家认为人的性格特征基本稳定，即便在经历重压后也保持不变。但这项研究表明，在美国，人们的性格发生了明显变化。研究人员调查了疫情前人们的神经质、外倾性、开放性、宜人性和认真性水平，并将其与2021年和2022年收集的数据进行比较，得出了以上结论。

“The pandemic was an unprecedented opportunity to see how a collective stressful event may impact personality,” said lead study author Angelina Sutin, a professor of medicine at Florida State University.

该项研究的主要作者、佛罗里达州立大学医学教授安吉丽娜·萨廷（Angelina Sutin）说：“这次疫情是一个前所未有的机会，可以研究集体压力事件对性格的影响。”

Extraversion, agreeableness and conscientiousness all declined in the US population in the years following the start of the pandemic, particularly in young adults, according to the study, published Wednesday in the journal PLOS One.

该项研究发表在周三的《PLOS One》杂志（美国科学公共图书馆的综合期刊）。根据研究结果，在疫情发生的前几年里，美国人口的外倾性、宜人性和认真性都有所下降，这在年轻成年人中尤为明显。

Why were younger adults more impacted? We can’t know for sure, Sutin said, but there are theories.

为什么年轻成年人更易受影响？萨廷说：“我们不确定原因，但是有这么几种解释。”

“Personality is less stable in young adults,” Sutin said. “But then at the same time, the pandemic disrupted what young adults are supposed to be doing. They’re supposed to be in school or starting their careers or transitioning into careers. They’re supposed to be going out and forming relationships.”

萨廷说：“年轻成年人的性格不那么稳定。但与此同时，疫情打乱了年轻成年人原有的计划。他们本该在学校或在职业生涯的开始或过渡阶段。他们本该走出去，与他人建立社交关系。”

The results didn’t hold true for each person — it was a look at a population trend, so it’s no surprise if you don’t see that same change in yourself or those closest to you, Sutin said.

萨廷说研究结果并不适用于每个人——这是观察群体整体趋势后得出的结论。因此，如果你自己或你最亲近的人身上没有发现同样的变化，这并不奇怪。

There are some caveats to the data as well, said Brent Roberts, a professor of psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who was not involved in the study. Since there wasn’t a control group and other explanations were not examined, he said it’s hard to say for sure whether the pandemic caused these changes.

伊利诺伊大学厄巴纳-香槟分校的心理学教授布伦特·罗伯茨指出，这些数据也有一些值得注意的事情。他说，由于没有对照组，研究人员也没有验证其他解释，所以很难确定这些变化是否是由疫情导致。罗伯茨教授未参与这项研究。

Behind the findings

研究发现的背后

Researchers collected the data from the more than 7,000 people ages 18 to 109 who participated online in the Understanding America Study, comparing how they responded to questions before February 2020 versus later that same year and then again in 2021 or 2022, according to the study.

根据该研究，研究人员收集了7000多位18至109岁参与者的数据，他们在线参与了一个名为“了解美国”（Understanding America Study）的研究项目。研究人员比较了他们在2020年2月和同年晚些时候以及2021年和2022年对相同问题的回答。

They examined the data through the five-factor model, which hypothesizes that the various personality traits can be attributed to one of five overarching qualities: neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness.

他们利用五因素模型对数据进行研究。该模型假设，不同性格特征可归因为五大特征中的一种，即神经质、外倾性、开放性、宜人性和认真性。

Over the entire population they examined, researchers found a declining trend in neuroticism in 2020, but the changes were small, according to Sutin.

据萨廷说，通过对所有参与者的分析，研究人员发现，2020年他们的神经质有所下降，但是幅度有限。

Once they took 2021 and 2022 data into account, researchers saw a more significant decrease in extraversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness. The change was big enough to equal about a decade of change, according to the study. Neuroticism also increased over this time.

分析了2021和2022年的数据后，研究人员发现参与者的外倾性、开放性、宜人性和认真性下降更加明显。根据这项研究，这个变化之大相当于大约十年的变化。此外，神经质也有所上升。

That is especially significant considering how essential those traits are, Sutin said. Conscientiousness is important for academic and work outcomes, as well as relationship and physical health, she added.

萨廷说，考虑到这些都是基本的性格特征，这些变化尤为重要。她补充说，认真性对于学术、工作表现、人际关系和生理健康来说都十分重要。

“The increased neuroticism and decreased conscientiousness would mean that this cohort would be more vulnerable to mental and physical health problems,” Roberts said. “Although, given the modest effect sizes, these effects would be too subtle to see at the level of an individual and would more likely only be seen in aggregate, population-level analyses such as those done by epidemiologists.”

罗伯茨说：“神经质上升，认真性下降，意味着这些人更易受生理和心理健康问题的困扰。尽管研究规模较小，在个体层面，这些影响十分微小、不易察觉；只有像流行病学家进行的综合性群体分析才可以体现。”

Questions remain

有问题仍待解决

A society that is less open, agreeable and conscientious may not sound promising, but experts say there’s still more work to do to determine how these findings may impact the future.

一个开放性、宜人性和认真性有所下降的社会听起来并不太乐观，但是专家说，想得知这些发现会如何影响未来，还有很多工作要做。

Although researchers noted changes, they cannot yet say how long the difference in personality might last or whether it will see a swing back, Sutin said.

萨廷说，尽管研究人员发现了这些性格变化，但还无法得知这些变化会持续多久，以及是否会有反弹。

The takeaway, Roberts said, is that “personality, while more consistent than changing, is not fixed and can respond to changes in the environment.”

罗伯茨说，该研究的要点是“尽管相比变化而言，性格更加稳定，但它也并非一成不变，也会根据环境而改变”。

And since there were changes both in society and the ways individual people functioned, it’s clear the pandemic was difficult for everyone, he added.

他补充说，由于社会和个人行为方式的改变，很显然这场疫情对每个人而言都很困难。

“In other words, (people) are not crazy, it’s been a hard few years on all of us. So much so that there has even been a small effect on our personalities.”

“换句话说，（人们）并不疯狂，只是过去几年对我们来说都很艰难。以至于甚至对我们的性格产生了小小的影响。”

知识拓展

心理学家认为，性格有五个基本维度，通常被称为“Big 5”性格特质：

神经质（neuroticism）、外倾性（extraversion）、开放性（openness）、宜人性（agreeableness）和认真性（conscientiousness）

文中提到的五因素模型（five-factor model）就包含这五个因素，它们有以下特点：

神经质：一种以悲伤、喜怒无常和情绪不稳定为特征的特征。

外倾性：特点是兴奋、社交、健谈、自信和大量的情感表达。

开放性：具有想象力和洞察力等特征。

宜人性：包括诸如信任、 利他主义、善良、感情和其他 亲社会行为等属性

认真性：特征包括高度的体贴、良好的冲动控制和目标导向的行为。

译者：应用型笔译班学员Sarah

审校：Jennifer

英文来源：CNN

*对应译文由译介翻译团队完成，仅供参考，不当之处欢迎大家在评论区讨论！转载请注明来源！

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