학술논문

COVID-19 and Social Distancing: A Cross-Cultural Study of Interpersonal Distance Preferences and Touch Behaviors Before and During the Pandemic.
Document Type
Article
Source
Cross-Cultural Research. Feb2024, Vol. 58 Issue 1, p41-69. 29p.
Subject
*Touch -- Psychological aspects
*Self-evaluation
*Motivation (Psychology)
*Disease incidence
*World health
*Surveys
*Ethnology research
*Interpersonal relations
*Questionnaires
*Descriptive statistics
*Disease susceptibility
*Research funding
*Social distancing
*Social skills
*COVID-19 pandemic
Language
ISSN
1069-3971
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the introduction of unprecedented safety measures, one of them being physical distancing recommendations. Here, we assessed whether the pandemic has led to long-term effects on two important physical distancing aspects, namely interpersonal distance preferences and interpersonal touch behaviors. We analyzed nearly 14,000 individual cases from two large, cross-cultural surveys – the first conducted 2 years prior to the pandemic and the second during a relatively stable period of a decreased infection rate in May-June 2021. Preferred interpersonal distances increased by 54% globally during the COVID-19 pandemic. This increase was observable across all types of relationships, all countries, and was more pronounced in individuals with higher self-reported vulnerability to diseases. Unexpectedly, participants reported a higher incidence of interpersonal touch behaviors during than before the pandemic. We discuss our results in the context of prosocial and self-protection motivations that potentially promote different social behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]