The emotional costs of the COVID-19 pandemic have raised concerns among clinicians and scholars. The goal of the current study was to test whether or not neuroticism, conscientiousness, and personal belief in a just world are associated with depression during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, the contribution of neuroticism and conscientiousness was assessed over and above demographic variables and COVID-19 perceptions, and the unique contribution of personal belief in a just world was evaluated beyond all the other study variables. Samples were collected in three different countries—Israel (N = 917), Germany (N = 213), and India (N = 160). Online self-report questionnaires were utilized to measure age, gender, COVID-19 perceptions (probability, severity, and self-efficacy), neuroticism, conscientiousness, personal belief in a just world, and depression. The findings indicated that, across the three countries, neuroticism was positively associated with depression (correlations ranging from .24 to .44), and conscientiousness and personal belief in a just world were negatively associated with depression (correlations ranging from − .31 to − .21, and from − .35 to − .23, respectively). Moreover, neuroticism and conscientiousness explained unique variance over and above demographic variables and COVID-19 perceptions (except conscientiousness in India), and the effect of personal belief in a just world on depression was significant beyond the effects of all other study variables. These findings support the role of personality in explaining depression regardless of situational characteristics and stress the role of just world beliefs as protective factors against negative emotions.

COVID-19 大流行造成的情感损失引起了临床医生和学者的担忧。当前研究的目的是测试神经质、责任心和对公正世界的个人信念是否与 COVID-19 大流行期间的抑郁症有关。此外，神经质和责任心的贡献的评估超出了人口变量和 COVID-19 的认知，个人信念对公正世界的独特贡献也超出了所有其他研究变量的评估。样本是在三个不同的国家收集的：以色列 ( N = 917)、德国 ( N = 213) 和印度 ( N = 160)。利用在线自我报告问卷来测量年龄、性别、COVID-19 认知（概率、严重程度和自我效能）、神经质、责任心、对公正世界的个人信念和抑郁程度。研究结果表明，在这三个国家，神经质与抑郁症呈正相关（相关性范围为 0.24 至 0.44），而责任心和个人对公正世界的信念与抑郁症呈负相关（相关性范围为 - 0.31 至 - .21，以及从 - .35 到 - .23，分别）。此外，神经质和责任心解释了人口变量和 COVID-19 认知之外的独特差异（印度的责任心除外），而个人对公正世界的信念对抑郁症的影响远远超过所有其他研究变量的影响。这些发现支持人格在解释抑郁症中的作用，无论情境特征如何，并强调公正的世界信念作为对抗负面情绪的保护因素的作用。