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Who Gets Involved in a Crisis? The Role of the Big Five Personality Traits and Empathy in Benevolent and Activist Engagement

Luise Kratt et al.

Social Psychological and Personality Science2026https://doi.org/10.1177/19485506251413297article
AJG 3ABDC B
Weight
0.50

What the paper says

Civic engagement is essential for responding to societal crises, yet only some people take action. This study investigates how personality is connected to who engages during a crisis and how they engage. We analyzed the reactions of German civil society to the war in Ukraine to examine how the Big Five traits and empathy relate to benevolent (e.g., volunteering or donating) and activist (e.g., protesting) engagement. To test the robustness of our effects, we analyzed immediate (within the first 3 months of the war), late (8–15 months after the beginning of the war), and sustained (both immediate and late) engagement. In a longitudinal sample ( N > 700), hierarchical regressions showed that personality and empathy were associated with immediate, late, and sustained engagement. Extraversion, openness, and empathy positively predicted both benevolent and activist engagement; conscientiousness had negative effects on both engagement forms.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1177/19485506251413297

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@article{luise2026,
  title        = {{Who Gets Involved in a Crisis? The Role of the Big Five Personality Traits and Empathy in Benevolent and Activist Engagement}},
  author       = {Luise Kratt et al.},
  journal      = {Social Psychological and Personality Science},
  year         = {2026},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1177/19485506251413297},
}

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Who Gets Involved in a Crisis? The Role of the Big Five Personality Traits and Empathy in Benevolent and Activist Engagement

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Evidence weight

0.50

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20
M · momentum0.50 × 0.15 = 0.07
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.