Understanding Growth and Setbacks During A Pandemic
This spring I published:
I reflected on how my recent hobby of completing puzzles during the quarantine helped me to further develop patience.
Responses to my article led me to wonder how others may have similarly been affected through the pandemic in relation to virtues they cultivated. Alternatively, I also was curious if anyone had the opposite experience, with the pandemic leading to vices instead of virtues.
I drafted a short survey that directed respondents to select from a list of virtues and vices given the following questions:
“What virtue was strengthened the most?”
“What virtue was weakened the most?”
Which sandwiched the question:
“What has helped strengthen this virtue?”
38.9% of respondents choose patience as the virtue that was strengthened the most. As the entire world has been forced to quarantine and wait to be vaccinated, patience is an unsurprising winner. Practicing patience during the pandemic has been incredibly important, especially given the desire to have things return to a new normal. Still, given that the next highest answer, courage, was more than 10 percentage points away at 27.8%, is impressive.
A three-way tie for the lowest virtues on this question were advocacy, truthfulness, and none at 2.8%.
The follow-up question, “What has helped strengthen this virtue?” was a short answer question and allowed the survey takers to describe in their own words what assisted them in developing the virtue over the course of the pandemic, just as completing puzzles had done for me.
Below is a highlight of some of the short answer responses from each virtue, in order from the most to the least popular virtue.
Patience:
“Having to wait for everything. Food, activities, health care.”
“Experiencing the same day, every day, was frustrating. Adding a dog to the mix established a routine and also tested my patience in new ways.”
Courage:
“I started the first year of college in a pandemic and meeting new people while in a new place caused me to become more courageous in terms of finding and making new friends and talking to professors.”
“Going to work every day knowing I could be exposed to the virus.”
Temperance:
“Not being able to do all things I would normally do.”
“Before the pandemic, I found myself creating a narrative that I couldn’t find the time to work out or eat right due to a busy work schedule, supporting unhealthy eating foods, and indulging in cocktails. The pandemic challenged me to change my behaviors because working from home decreased my commute by 100 percent. I am grateful that I took advantage of the time at home to practice healthy behaviors.”
Ambition:
“Seeing my potential and moving on it efficiently.”
Friendliness:
“I wanted to be nicer to people during that time.”
“New appreciation for social interaction and sharing.”
Justice:
“Having little to focus on outside of the political state of the country.”
“Learning more about social justice issues. Becoming educated.”
Truthfulness:
“Having to be honest about my needs and boundaries with others has definitely strengthened this virtue for me.”
Advocacy:
“Knowledge of issues past and present.”
The third and final question, “What virtue was weakened the most?”, resulted in a tie for friendliness and ambition at 16.7%.
The results are interesting and are potentially due to how many people were isolated during quarantine and socially cut-off. Also, the redundant schedule of staying home day after day, likely cut down on individuals’ ambition in their daily lives.
The result with the lowest response was a tie at 2.8% between truthfulness and liberality. In terms of truthfulness, people may have felt compelled to be honest about what they need from others (this could include wearing a mask, social distancing, etc.). Liberality weakening is not surprising due to many people being laid off from their jobs and instead having to focus their spending on necessities rather than more personal purchases during the pandemic.
To conclude, this survey provided insights to how people have been coping during the pandemic through their virtues. Adaption to the pandemic over the past year and getting out of our comfort zones to adjust to our new normal has been crucial to everyday activities.
If you are interested in contributing your responses to the survey, please follow this link: Virtue Survey
Updated results will be published so we can continue to reflect on post-pandemic progress.
