CTV News is reporting a new study has found that people with sociopathic traits are less likely to follow public health measures designed to help limit the spread of COVID-19, including wearing a face mask and adhering to physical distancing.
The study, conducted by researchers at the Universidade Estadual de Londrina in Brazil, found that people with sociopathic traits were also more likely to trivialize the risks posed by the novel coronavirus and avoid regular hand-washing.
"Our findings indicated that anti-social traits, especially lower levels of empathy and higher levels of callousness, deceitfulness, and risk-taking, are directly associated with lower compliance with containment measures," the study read.
"These traits explain, at least partially, the reason why people continue not adhering to the containment measures even with increasing numbers of cases and deaths."
The findings were published Aug. 21 in the online journal Personality and Individual Differences.