Locus of Control and Covid-19

The Human Evolutionary Ecology Lab at Cal Poly conducted a 2-year original research project examining the impact of pandemic-related stressors on student Locus of Control (LOC), a psychological personality trait measuring the degree to which individuals believe the causality of events in their life lies within themselves vs external forces such as luck, powerful others, or chance. We proposed, that students living in a rapidly changing, high-mortality risk environment will shift their LOC to be more external, since maintaining internal control beliefs are costly in a world of uncertainty. This work is significant, because external LOC is associated with cynicism, low self esteem, hostility and helplessness.

2021 Poster

Presented at Human Behavior & Evolution Society (HBES) Conference, 2021 & California Polytechnic College of Liberal Arts Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) Symposium, 2021

Abstract

Locus of Control (LOC) measures the degree to which individuals believe outcomes in their lives are due to internal versus external forces such as luck, powerful others and chance. Life history theory predicts that in risky & unpredictable environments, individuals will shift their LOC to a more external state, since an internal LOC is more costly to manage in a rapidly changing or variably complex world. Pandemics cause widespread illness and induce rapid culture change, instigating confusion and uncertainty, and should therefore cause individuals to orient more toward an external LOC. Compared with the early pandemic, and with 21 previous years of university student LOC scores, mean LOC collected one year into the pandemic (2021) is significantly more external than forecasting models predict. News articles may contribute to this externality with hyperbolic headlines. Our data indicate that adverse childhood experiences, partially mediated by current health relative to peers, is associated with externality. Finally, conservativism is associated with internality in addition to less approval of an image of masks on campus and more approval of an image of a large indoor maskless gathering.

HBES Covid LOC poster 2021 (1).pptx

2020 Poster

Presented at California Workshop for Evolutionary Social Sciences (CWESS), 2020. Won Best Poster Award.

Abstract:

Using publicly available student directories from U.S. 4-year universities, participants were randomly selected based on last name to participate in an online survey through SurveyMonkey. Respondents (n = 96) answered demographic information about gender identity, political orientation, and family income. There were also asked questionnaires to measure adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and current home life stressors. Respondents were then randomly primed with photos, viewing either a serene landscape or one with pandemic news. After viewing the photo, they estimated how certain they were about the future, whether they would invest money in the future, and whether they had an internal or external locus of control (LOC) as measured by their answers on two standard psychological LOC questionnaires (Nowicki & Duke and Levenson). Finally, participants were asked about their overall health and Covid-19 status followed by an open-ended question about how they have been affected by Covid-19.

Are you in control poster_2020.pptx