The mediating role of empathy in the relationship between personality types and preventive behavior of Covid 19

Considering that the corona virus has spread all over the world so far and has many psychological consequences for the people, the government emphasizes on observing preventive behaviors. In the meantime, some people are more observant of preventive behaviors, which can be for various reasons. The aim of this study was to investigate the mediating role of empathy in the relationship between personality types and preventive behavior of Covid 19.

In this descriptive-correlational study, 200 students from different universities across the country were selected by convenience sampling method. Participants responded online (WhatsApp& Telegram) to the subscales of the 60-item Neo Questionnaire, the Jolif-Farrington Empathy Questionnaire (2000), and the researcher-made preventive behavior. Data analysis was performed using SPSS version 25 and linear regression analysis.

The results showed that the personality types of agreement (p <0.001 β = 0.438), conscientiousness (p <0.001 β = 0.511) and openness (p <0.001 β = 0.531) were directly related to preventive behavior and indirectly using The variables of empathy also strengthened this relationship and in relation to the components of neuroticism (p <0.001 β = -0.394) and extraversion (p <0.001 β = -0.503) with preventive behavior that had a negative relationship, empathy could not weaken this relationship. And increase preventive behavior.

The results showed that people with the characteristics of agreement, conscience and openness to experience more Preventive behaviors related to Covid 19 and empathy also strengthens this relationship. These results will have practical implications for formulating interventions for current and future crises.