Facing the pandemic in the dark: Psychopathic personality traits and life history strategies during COVID-19 lockdown period in different areas of China

Abstract

The current research aims to examine variation in psychopathic personality traits and life history strategies during COVID-19 lockdown period in different areas of China. In Study 1 ( N = 564), participants completed explicit measures of psychopathic traits and of life history strategy. To attenuate common method biases, Study 2 ( N = 267) employed an alternative measure of psychopathy and an indirect measure of life history strategy, namely, future-discounting. Across two studies, we found consistent and significant evidence that participants from Wuhan, the initial epicenter of the pandemic, evidenced a faster life history strategy and a markedly higher level of psychopathic traits than did participants from Chongqing, which was less affected by the virus. Furthermore, a consistent pattern of correlation between life history strategy and psychopathy was observed across different groups of participants. We also replicated some previously reported studies but found that not all sex effects were consistent with life history in Chinese populations. Taken together, these findings suggest that individuals may show a high degree of variation in life history speed and psychopathic traits in response to unpredictable and adverse environments, which provide support for extended life history plasticity.