The Dark Side of Brazil: Effects of Dark Traits on General COVID-19 Worry and Responses Against the Pandemic

Brazil is one of the epicenters of the COVID-19 pandemic (i.e., 563,470 deaths until August 9th, 2021). Since the Brazilian government is partly struggling and partly unwilling to control the pandemic, staying healthy falls almost exclusively to the population. Therefore, it is crucial to understand the predictive role of personality traits to explain the willingness to combat the COVID-19 virus. In the present study (N = 496), we investigated the Dark Pentad traits: Machiavellianism, narcissism, psychopathy, sadism, and spitefulness. Our findings revealed that the first four traits were consistently negatively associated with various measures that indicate whether the pandemic is taken seriously, such as the perceived severity of COVID-19 and intentions to act against COVID-19. Structural equation modeling further showed that general COVID-19 worry mediated the link between the Dark Pentad and adaptive and maladaptive responses. Our results indicate that all dark traits are associated with unsocial behaviors, but their relative importance varies depending on the outcome variable.