key: cord-310914-e2ot5fnv
authors: Sarkar, Siddharth; Majumder, Pradipta
title: COVID 19 draws attention to the adaptive evolutionary perspective of certain personality traits
date: 2020-06-12
journal: Asian J Psychiatr
DOI: 10.1016/j.ajp.2020.102215
sha: 
doc_id: 310914
cord_uid: e2ot5fnv

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This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the addition of a cover page and metadata, and formatting for readability, but it is not yet the definitive version of record. This version will undergo additional copyediting, typesetting and review before it is published in its final form, but we are providing this version to give early visibility of the article. Please note that, during the production process, errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. As the COVID 19 swathes across the world, it has necessitated changes in the usual behavioral repertoire in the form of adjusting to social distancing and lockdown norms (Cohen and Kupferschmidt, 2020) . The pandemic has unmasked distress due to loneliness and restrain from the gregarious assembly. However, not everyone is distressed to the same extent, and coping of different individuals are likely to vary (Chew et al., 2020) . As we make forays into understanding the impact of the pandemic on psychiatry and vice versa (Tandon, 2020) , an opportunity has been provided to explore the theoretical adaptive angle of personality traits and personality disorders.

Cluster A personality disorders comprise of paranoid, schizoid, and schizotypal personality disorders, and are marked by social aloofness. Individuals with paranoid personality are suspicious of intentions of others; those with schizoid personality do not want social relationships. Similarly, individuals with schizotypal personality have peculiarities of thoughts and behaviors and do not gel well with others. Opposed to anxious avoidant personality J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f disorders, they are not interested in developing close relationships with others. In the situation of pandemics, such cluster A personality characteristics may offer certain evolutionary advantages. Individuals with these personality features are less likely to be exposed to the transmission of microbial agents, due to their preference for solitude. Also, these personality characteristics are not significantly internally distressed by loneliness, leading to a lesser likelihood of resumption of social contacts when the wave of infection abates prior to the resurgence of another wave. The behavior immune system has been discussed (Schaller et al., 2015) which posits that people's way of engaging in certain activities that offer some protection against acquiring infectious diseases.

An individual's personality is generally an amalgam of multiple personality traits and personality disorders are the prototypical organizations of a spectrum. These traits confer resilience and, at the same time, lead to distress based upon circumstances, combinations, and intensities. Certain traits that are otherwise adaptive, like histrionicity and narcissism, may become problematic if they cause personal and inter-personal distress due to lack of opportunities of expression. Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder has been considered as a continuum of the spectrum of obsessive compulsive disorder, which in turn has been suggested to have an evolutionary advantage in pandemic situations due to features of fear of contamination and hoarding (Rajkumar, 2020) .

The coping mechanism employed by individuals with various personality structure also differs.

The current pandemic has tested individuals on their coping patterns and has led to symptoms of anxiety and depression when coping fails (Huang and Zhao, 2020) . Also, uncertainties in livelihood and economic constraints are likely to test the resilience in the future. An unaffected predisposition of schizoid and fantasy of schizotypal may insulate those with these characteristics from undue distress. On the other hand, manifest anxieties in paranoid, emotionally unstable, dependent, and anxious-avoidant personalities may increase. In the J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f severest of circumstances, antisocial personality characteristics may help individuals to appropriate resources regardless of social norms. The pandemic provides an opportunity to assess how personality features mediate the stress, depression, anxieties, and other health outcomes related to COVID-19 and help in building resilience to deal better with the circumstances.

The authors do not have any conflict of interest to disclose

There was no funder for the study

SS conceived the idea and PM elaborated upon it. The first draft was written by SS, which was further modified by PM. All authors have materially participated in the research and/or article preparation. All authors have approved the final article

The authors do not have any financial disclosures

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None. The study was not funded
