Personality traits and lockdowns

Individual trait: Data shows that that personality plays a huge role in how we do or don’t cope with difficult situations such as lockdowns. — 123rf.com

IN March 2020, still early in the pandemic, I opined that for introverts quarantine can be a liberation. I was extrapolating from personal experience and historical examples. And many other pundits had a similar hunch. But we were speculating before we had empirical data. Now that such information is available, what does it say?

By and large, the research (one in particular by Maryann Wei from the School of Psychology, University of Wollongong in Australia) shows that I was wrong. But I couldn’t be happier because what the evidence actually says is that the truth, as usual, is more complex, more subtle and more interesting.