• Question: do you think the pandemic has offered further insight into how people behave?

    Asked by anon-283830 on 5 Mar 2021.
    • Photo: Harry Piper

      Harry Piper answered on 5 Mar 2021:

      This is a fantastic question, and I can’t say for sure! I think the pandemic has done a couple of things! It has offered insight into some aspects of life (e.g. rule breaking, mental health, education) but it has also confused some aspects of life, and so has perhaps actually changed the way we behave. For example, I look at interpersonal threat and we know invading personal space is a threatening cue, so if 2m distancing is in place, is invading personal distance heighted from (e.g.) 50 cm away to being 2.5m away (these numbers are made up)! It’s certainly confusing!

    • Photo: anon

      anon answered on 5 Mar 2021:

      Hi Leah,
      I think it has really demonstrated a few things.
      Firstly, in social psychology people are far more likely to follow others when presented with them than to disobey. So things like how lockdown violations in the news actually increase other behaving in this away as they see it ‘as everyone is doing it’. Conversely, seeing others adhere to the rules encouragers others to do the same! I think that says a lot about human behaviour and wanting to be the norm and fit in.
      Secondly, I think it also shows how much physical and emotional contact is fundamental to how we think, behave and feel. Lockdown has really shown this, especially in the high rate of mental health issues developing from these factors.
      And lastly, looking at those with conspiracy theories I think also says a lot about the power of belief, persuasion and weird/interesting views of the world.

    • Photo: Dennis Relojo-Howell

      Dennis Relojo-Howell answered on 8 Mar 2021:

      Hi leah! One of my biggest worries is that things are likely not to change – no massive return to our normal lives before Covid. For instance, I am now getting used to communicating with other people over Zoom. While it’s convenient, I hope we do more face-to-face communication after this.

      I have also noticed that many of us have become more ‘neighbourly’ during the pandemic; I certainly did. Crisis, such as the pandemic, can make communities more united.

    • Photo: Lisa Orchard

      Lisa Orchard answered on 8 Mar 2021:

      Hi Leah. That’s a fantastic question – and I believe it has! From a cyberpsychology perspective its really interesting to see how information on the pandemic is spread on social media. I think it can really give us a better insight in to how we use technology for information seeking. For instance, how do we evaluate whether something is fake news? How do we use technology to seek support?

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