Personality traits of world leaders and differential policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic

The current study assesses the extent to which government leaders’ personality traits are related to divergent policy responses during the pandemic. To do so, we use data from the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker initiative (OxCGRT) to measure the speed and magnitude of policy responses across countries and NEGex, a dataset that maps the personality traits of current heads of government (presidents or prime ministers) in 61 countries. We find that world leaders scoring high on “plasticity” (extraversion, openness) were quicker to implement travel restrictions and provide financial relief as well as offered a stronger response in general (average overall response). Whereas, leaders scoring high on “stability” (conscientiousness, agreeableness, emotional stability) offered both quicker and stronger financial relief. Our findings underscore the need to account for the personality of decision-makers when exploring decision-making during the pandemic, and during similar crisis situations.