In the midst of a pandemic, more introverted individuals may have a mortality advantage.

Abstract

We investigated whether the relationship between extroversion and mortality changed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Midlife Americans were surveyed in 1995-96 with mortality follow-up through December 31, 2020. We used a Cox model to estimate age-specific mortality controlling for sex, race/ethnicity, the period trend in mortality, an indicator for the pandemic period (Mar-Dec 2020), extroversion, and an interaction between extroversion and the pandemic indicator. Prior to the pandemic, extroversion was associated with somewhat lower mortality (HR = 0.93 per SD, 95% CI 0.88-0.97), but the relationship reversed during the pandemic. Extroversion was associated with greater pandemic-related excess mortality (HR = 1.29 per SD, 95% CI 1.002-1.67). That is, compared with persons who were more introverted, those who were highly extroverted suffered a bigger increase in mortality during the pandemic relative to pre-pandemic mortality levels. The slight mortality advantage enjoyed by more extroverted Americans prior to the pandemic disappeared during the first 10 months of the COVID-19 pandemic. We suspect that the mortality benefit of introversion during the pandemic is largely a result of reduced exposure to the risk of infection, but it may also derive in part from the ability of more introverted individuals to adapt more easily to reduced social interaction without engaging in self-destructive behavior (e.g., drug and alcohol abuse).