How the Coronavirus Pandemic Has Affected Social Behaviours
Since the start of the Coronavirus pandemic in 2020, there has been extensive research and discussion about the impacts that it has had across the world, such as on the environment and economies. In this article, Maddy Simmonds focuses on the impact the pandemic has had on social behaviour, drawing on examples from both humans and animals.
Unprecedented times – a phrase I’m sure we are all sick of hearing. But truthfully it’s a very accurate description of the last year or so, as this pandemic is likely to be the biggest global event to occur in our lifetimes. It has affected the way that we think and as a consequence, many of our behaviours, and is likely to continue to shape our thoughts and actions for some time to come.
Illustration by Caitlin Noble.
One of the ways that our thoughts have shifted relates to confidence and trust. Trust can be described as making predictions based on expectations that are formed when you experience and interact with the world. A level of trust is needed for society to function as it is used in many aspects of life, from interpersonal relationships to how we respond to information to decision making. But the pandemic has caused uncertainty and fear and ultimately an erosion of trust and increased sensitivity to social risks, which has led to a plethora of behavioural changes, ranging from digital communication to social distancing rules to panic-buying. The phrase “coronavirus culture” is often used as a way of referring to this “new normal”.
This erosion of trust has led to higher levels of anxiety for many people. A recent study found reports of mysophobia (the fear of germs or contamination) amongst students. This manifests in behavioural changes like avoiding public transport and continuing to meet online, as students don’t trust that other people aren’t infected. Risk is less tolerable and familiarity is more valuable. To this end, students in this study also gave more importance to their family, in terms of spending more time with them, and created new healthy habits and routines to help maintain emotional stability. Not only has the pandemic created health anxieties amongst these students, but also stress directly related to their studies, due to delays in exams and placements, and general anxiety about the economy. Globally 1.6 billion students have been affected through the closure of educational facilities during the pandemic and so there has been a shift to online learning. This can also affect trust, as having a screen between you and a colleague or teacher means that eye contact is not as perceivable, it allows for other tasks to be done simultaneously so attention is diverted, and there is no physical shared space. So this shift to technology has changed the predictions that we make about others based on social norms like eye contact, so it’s no wonder that when we start to physically interact with others again it seems strange and unnatural at first!
The panic-buying behaviours seen at the start of the pandemic can also be explained using this idea of trust and new expectations. Pre-Covid, interactions with strangers whilst food shopping were usually polite and amicable, littered with social expectations like smiling at someone if eye contact was made. However, the fear of the invisible threat of Covid coupled with new norms like social distancing has resulted in a very different shopping experience and more antisocial behaviours, such as a reluctance to be near others, no small talk, rushing while shopping and at the extreme end, panic buying.
Another behaviour on the rise due to the pandemic is pet ownership. Since the start of the pandemic, 3.2 million households in the UK have acquired a pet, citing combating loneliness as the most common reason for investing in a new family member. And 74% of people said that their pet helped their mental health during the lockdowns. But how has the pandemic affected the pets themselves?
Pet ownership is on the rise as a result of the pandemic. Image by Maddy Simmonds.
One-third of owners reported feeling closer to their dog during the lockdowns. Whilst this is likely to have benefits for both pet and owner, it is also likely to have negative impacts down the line. Even without taking the effects of the pandemic into account, 8 out of 10 dogs find it hard to be left alone and so can experience some form of separation anxiety. A report by the Dog’s Trust looking into the impacts of Covid on dog behaviour found that there was a 41% increase in clingy dog behaviour during the lockdowns, which begs the question - how will they cope when we start to spend more time apart? Additionally, there were reports of dogs showing new “problem behaviours” during lockdown such as barking (Google searches for this increased by 48%) and growling or snapping when approached or handled by children (behaviour increased by 57%) suggesting that dogs were also frustrated by aspects of lockdown life, like changes to their usual routine or not having as much freedom and space for themselves.
15% of cats spent more time outside during lockdown, suggesting that time away from humans is valuable and necessary. Image by Maddy Simmonds.
Unlike dogs, cats are often able to go in and out as they please. The People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals found that 15% of cats spent more time outside during lockdown, suggesting that having time away from their humans is valuable and necessary. Twenty-three per cent of owners also reported other new cat behaviours during lockdown such as vocalising in different forms (increased by 6%) and waking owners up (increased by 4%).
What are the takeaway messages from this? Firstly, ensure that you are getting a pet for the right reasons - a pet is for life, not just for lockdown. Secondly, actively prepare your pet for life post-lockdown so it isn’t such a shock to the system.
Behavioural changes have been seen in wild animals too. Birdsong is a type of social behaviour that appears to have changed during the pandemic. Birds rely on sound for survival and reproduction; it is their way of communicating with one another such as individuals singing warning calls to others, and males using their songs to seduce females and intimidate rival males. Birds often have an ideal acoustic space in which they produce their songs, sometimes called the most effective song space. However, frequently birds have to compete with man-made noise and therefore adjust their songs to be heard. Often these adjustments include increasing their call volume (known as the Lombard or cocktail party effect) and singing at higher frequencies to be heard against low-frequency traffic noise - all of which uses a less suitable acoustic space for the birds.
A study in the US analysed the calls of white-crowned sparrows in the San Francisco bay area - a population of birds that have been recorded since the 1970s and found that the pandemic had a positive impact on them. Thanks to the lockdowns, noise levels dropped to levels similar to those back in the 1950s which opened up the most effective song space to sparrows (ie, they could sing at their natural and ideal frequency and volume). This meant that the sparrows produced higher quality songs at a lower pitch (much sexier to potential females!), and sang more quietly – without the background noise these songs travelled much further and stood out more. This study is especially important as it highlights how quickly these birds can respond to reduced noise and their resilience to human pressure.
Similar findings have been discovered in the UK. The consultancy firm “24 Acoustics” takes sound recordings as part of their work monitoring noise from construction, traffic and aircrafts. Over the lockdowns, they found that whilst these man-made noises had decreased, the sounds of birdsong seemed to increase. For example, in Guildford in the South East of England, noise levels fell by up to 8 decibels, which to you and me means that the ambient noise level almost halved! It’s no wonder that the birds took advantage of this and their songs were more noticeable.
It’s not clear how birdsong will fare once the world goes back to “normal” with increased noise from human activity - my guess would be that birds will revert to using a sub-par song space again. However, what these findings do highlight is the power that we have as humans to help wildlife if we all work together. Forty-four per cent of British people are more conscious about how their behaviour affects the environment compared to before the pandemic and globally 85% of people are willing to change their behaviour to help the environment, which gives me, for one, hope for the future.
Thank you to Caitlin for her beautiful illustration. You can find more of her work on Instagram @caitlinniamhillustrations
Maddy Simmonds
Maddy is a Zoology graduate from the University of Exeter and her passions include conservation, anthrozoology and science communication. She often draws inspiration from connecting with nature in everyday life and hopes to encourage people to also be just as excited by local conservation stories as international ones. She enjoys how writing not only allows her to share information with others, but that she is also able to learn new things for herself in the process
You can follow Maddy on her nature-based Instagram account @nature_nutter.