Character Strengths and Virtues Supporting Human Wellbeing Through Covid-19 

As Covid-19 spread around the world some people took to the streets to cheer first responders and entertain their neighbors from afar. This research sought to learn more about the character strengths and virtues supporting human wellbeing through the Covid-19 crisis. To investigate, an online research questionnaire was launched in the Spring of 2020. The characters strengths and virtues (CSV) were defined as those identified by Martin Seligman and Christopher Peterson (2020) to include 24 universal strengths of the human character classified within six core virtues. The survey research approach included a mixed question format. A total of 2871 respondents from 33 countries rated the importance and helpfulness of specific virtues during the Covid-19 crisis on a 1-5 Likert scale. Within each virtue, respondents were asked to identify the specific strength that was most helpful. Additional questions focused on demographics, helpfulness of specific strengths in key areas, one’s experience with Covid-19, etc. Ratings of importance of different virtues were compared between groups using a two-sample t-test. The research revealed specific CSV’s as most helpful, for example, respondents rated the virtues of Wisdom and Humanity as the most important in helping them get through the Covid-19 crisis (rated as 4.04 +/- 0.81 and 4.01 +/- 0.93, respectively). Within these two virtues, the strengths of Judgement/Critical thinking and Kindness were respectively identified as the most helpful. Bravery (20.6%), Creativity (19.2%), and Love of Learning (19%), were identified as the top three strengths respondents wished they had more of to get through the Covid-19 crisis. And Kindness and Creativity were selected as the character strengths they noticed most in people around the world.Respondents who had direct experience with Covid-19 or were in a more vulnerable situation due to their employment gave higher importance ratings, on average, for all virtues. Specifically, individuals who had been sick with Covid-19 rated all virtues higher than those who had not had the disease. The highest observed difference was for the virtue of Courage where people who had had the disease rated it at 4.14 +/- 0.78, compared to those who hadn’t 3.76 +/- 0.98 (p < 0.0001). Similarly, respondents who lost a loved one to Covid-19 rated all virtues higher than those who had not experienced such loss. The most prominent difference in virtue ratings between individuals who had lost someone versus those who hadn’t was for Justice (3.92 +/- 0.93 vs. 3.43 +/- 1.14), followed by Courage (4.10 +/- 0.78 vs. 3.70 +/- 1.01). In addition, frontline workers rated all virtues higher than non-frontline workers. Similarly to those who had lost a loved one to Covid-19, frontline workers showed the highest difference compared to non-frontline workers in ratings for Justice (3.97 +/- 0.89 vs. 3.36 +/- 1.16) followed by Courage (4.04 +/- 0.81 vs. 3.70 +/- 1.02). This research provides insights that may be useful for those seeking to use CSV’s to support themselves and others through Covid-19.