The role of impulsivity and delay discounting in student compliance with COVID-19 protective measures

Wismans, A. et al. (2021) The role of impulsivity and delay discounting in student compliance with COVID-19 protective measures. Personality and Individual Differences, 179, 110925. (doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2021.110925)

Abstract

During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, governments set recommendations and restrictions that have given rise to new situations that require residents to deliberate and respond nonautomatically. For highly impulsive individuals, dealing with these situations may be harder, as they tend to deliberate less about the consequences of their behaviors. In this study, we investigate the relationship between impulsivity and delay discounting on the one hand and compliance with COVID-19 restrictions on the other hand. We distinguish between compliance with social distancing measures and compliance with hygiene measures. Regression analyses of an international sample of 6759 students from seven European countries reveal that the self-reported personality construct of impulsivity is negatively related to both types of compliance behavior. However, and unexpectedly, we also find a weak positive association between the discount rate—as measured by a behavioral task—and compliance. Our study highlights the importance of individual differences in impulsivity in regard to compliance with public health measures during a pandemic.

• Item Type: Articles
• Keywords: COVID-19, compliance, impulsivity, delay discounting, students, public health.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Letina, Dr Srebrenka

Creator Roles

Letina, S.: Conceptualization, Investigation, Formal analysis, Writing – original draft, Writing – review and editing

• Authors: Wismans, A., Letina, S., Wennberg, K., Thurik, R., Baptista, R., Burke, A., Dejardin, M., Janssen, F., Santarelli, E., Torrès, O., and Franken, I.
• College/School: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Health & Wellbeing > MRC/CSO SPHSU
• Journal Name: Personality and Individual Differences
• Publisher: Elsevier
• ISSN: 0191-8869
• ISSN (Online): 1873-3549
• Published Online: 17 April 2021
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2021 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Personality and Individual Differences 179: 110925
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License

Project Code	Award No	Project Name	Principal Investigator	Funder's Name	Funder Ref	Lead Dept
		Relationships and health		Medical Research Council (MRC)	MC_UU_00022/3	HW - MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit
				Office of the Chief Scientist (CSO)	SPHSU18