The COVID-19 pandemic, a health emergency with international consequences, has brought serious impact on all aspects of society and affects not only health and economy, but psychological functioning and mental health as well. This research was conducted in order to examine and further our understanding of emotional reactions to the ongoing pandemic. Change in emotional reactions during the pandemic and relations with specific pandemic related behaviors and personality traits from the revised Reinforcement sensitivity theory were explored. The research was conducted in Serbia for 35 days while the country was in a state of emergency, as a citizen science project. Out of the 1526 participants that joined the study, 444 (67% female) had measures for all five weeks. Longitudinal changes in four emotional states during the pandemic were examined: worry, fear, boredom, and anger/annoyance. Results indicate a decrease in all four emotional states over time. The biggest decrease was present in case of worry, followed by fear and boredom. Regression analysis showed that personality dimensions, as well as behavioral responses in this situation significantly predicted emotional reactions. Findings revealed the Behavioral activation system was significantly related to worry, fear and boredom, Fight with boredom and anger, and the Behavioral inhibition system with anger. Adherence to protection measures, as well as increased exposure to the media, had significant positive relations with worry and fear. These results indicate that both stable characteristics and specific pandemic-related behaviors are significantly related to emotional response during the pandemic.

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The main aim of this study was to explore reactions to the COVID-19 pandemic and their relationship with personality traits using a person-centered approach. Sample of 471 Serbian citizens was collected during the first 7 weeks of the pandemic. Cluster analysis revealed three clusters based on reactions to the pandemic: Adapted, Antagonized, and Passive. Adaptive type is characterized by stable emotional reactions and adherence to behavioral guidelines. Antagonized cluster is characterized by lowered adherence to behavioral guidelines, while Passive cluster is characterized by increased fear and boredom. Clusters differed significantly on HEXACO and PANAS traits. Similarity of obtained clusters with prototypes that commonly emerge using personality traits for classification, stresses the importance of basic individual differences in pandemic-induced behavior.

The first twin study in Serbia began in 2011 as a part of the research project, ‘Psychological Foundations of Mental Health: Hereditary and Environmental Factors’. At the same time, the research team from the Faculty of Philosophy and Faculty of Medicine in Novi Sad established the first Serbian twin registry. The registry is intended primarily for the purpose of the research in behavioral genetics, as well as potential future studies in human genetics. It includes information on 1658 volunteers, including twin-pairs, their parent and siblings. The behavioral genetic study of adult twins has been focused on the hereditary and environmental sources of variance of different psychological characteristics, such as personality traits, cognitive abilities, executive functions and aggression, as well as some anthropometric measures and aspects of mental and physical health. Certain molecular genetic analyses have also been performed. The research team is currently starting the longitudinal twin study of children, which will be focused on different indicators of emotional, cognitive and physical development.

The aims of this study were to examine possible differences and factors that contribute to risk perception and compliance with preventive measures at the beginning (T1) and the end (T2) of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. The sample consisted of 423 participants (M = 30.29, SD = 14.45; 69% female). Compliance, risk perception and trust in information were significantly higher in T1 than T2. For risk perception, significant predictors in both T1 and T2 were age, Emotionality (HEXACO-PI-R), and Unrealistic Optimism (NLE, Negative Life Events). Trust in information was a significant predictor in T1, while Unrealistic Optimism (Positive Life Events) was a significant predictor in T2. For compliance, significant predictors in T1 were gender and trust in information while in T2 were Emotionality, Extraversion, Conscientiousness (HEXACO-PI-R), NLE and trust in information, for both T1 and T2. In general, findings suggest a much more pronounced role of personality traits in adherence to protective measures at the end than at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in Serbia. Also, the results indicate the role of unrealistic optimism regarding negative life events in lower compliance with protective measures.

Validation of a twin zygosity-estimating questionnaire, The Questionnaire of Twins’ Physical Resemblance, created by Oniszczenko et al. and used in European and Serbian twin studies, was carried out on a sample of 222 pairs (176 monozygotic, 46 dizygotic) of adult twins (average age 24.6). Four discriminant functions, use of different sets of indicators (zygosity questionnaire items), were applied in order to obtain the most correct and accurate estimates of zygosity. The first function was a predefined function used in European twin studies, the following two functions contained sets of 18 and 24 freely estimated indicators respectively, while the last one utilized the items with most consistent contributions to zygosity prediction. The analytic procedure included cross-validation, whereby the sample was randomly split into two subsamples, comprising 107 and 115 twin pairs. The results pointed to successful (over 90% correct) identification of monozygotic twins, and sizeably lower correctness in identifying dizygotic twins. Overall correctness of estimation exceeded 90%, with the small set of best-performing indicators. The results encourage questionnaire estimation of zygosity, and raise the issue of improving the classification procedure in dizygotic twins.

The aims of this study were to examine possible differences and factors that contribute to risk perception and compliance with preventive measures at the beginning (T1) and the end (T2) of the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic. The sample consisted of 423 participants (M = 30.29, SD = 14.45; 69% female). Compliance, risk perception and trust in information were significantly higher in T1 than T2. For risk perception, significant predictors in both T1 and T2 were age, Emotionality (HEXACO-PI-R) and Unrealistic Optimism (NLE, Negative Life Events). Trust in information was a significant predictor in T1, while Unrealistic Optimism (Positive Life Events) was a significant predictor in T2. For compliance, significant predictors in T1 were gender and trust in information while in T2 were Emotionality, Extraversion, Conscientiousness (HEXACO-PI-R), NLE and trust in information, for both T1 and T2. In general, findings suggest a much more pronounced role of personality traits in adherence to protective measures at the end than at the beginning of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Serbia. Also, the results indicate the role of unrealistic optimism regarding negative life events in lower compliance with protective measures.

Epigenetic modifications of the membrane bound catechol-O-methyltransferase (MB-COMT) gene may affect the enzymatic degradation of dopamine, and consequently, human behavior. This study investigated the association between membrane bound catechol-O-methyltransferase DNA methylation (DNAm) differences in 92 monozygotic (MZ) twins with phenotypic manifestations of cognitive, behavioral, and personality indicators associated with reward-related behaviors and lack of control. We used pyrosequencing to determine DNAm of the regulatory region of membrane bound catechol-O-methyltransferase in saliva DNA. Results of intrapair differences in the percentage of membrane bound catechol-O-methyltransferase DNAm at each of five CpG sites show that there are associations between phenotypic indicators of lack of control and membrane bound catechol-O-methyltransferase DNAm differences on CpG1, CpG2 and CpG4, suggesting the common epigenetic patterns for personality traits, cognitive functions, and risk behaviors.