Marketing experts have found that those who think they have previously been stuck with Covid by a friend or family member are less likely to think they will be stuck again by those who have been infected by a known or unknown person. The team from Carlos III University in Madrid, Spain, says their experiments also suggest that this so-called “friend shield effect” seems to be stronger among those who are politically conservative than liberal. “Restricting interactions with close friends and family is a common safeguard to reduce the risk of transmitting Covid-19, but the study’s findings show that this practice also inadvertently raises other issues, as people tend to perceive reduced health risks and engage in potentially dangerous health behaviors, ”the authors report. The findings appear to be linked to what is known as the “intimacy paradox” – the idea that those to whom we feel closest and safest may actually be at greater risk. The issue has been raised in the past by experts in connection with gatherings of friends and relatives over Christmas and other occasions during the Covid pandemic, with concerns that people tend to despise their loved ones, increasing the risk of spreading infections. Graphic The researchers, Professor Eline De Vries and Dr Hyunjung Crystal Lee, conducted a series of online experiments with participants in the United States and conducted a series of online experiments with participants in the United States. In one paper, the group divided 495 participants into two groups and asked them to write down some thoughts about either a friend or an acquaintance. They were then asked to read a paragraph suggesting that junk food increases the risk of serious Covid, as opposed to disinfectants and masks, before being offered a special offer in an online store for either chocolate bars and chips or face masks. disinfection wipes and hand sanitizer. The results, published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, reveal that 27% of those who made a purchase after writing to a friend chose junk food, compared with 21% who wrote to an acquaintance. In another study involving 262 people who did not have Covid before, the team found people who were asked to imagine being infected by a friend who planned to spend an average of $ 9.28 on items such as masks or hand sanitizer. the next two months – about half of what those who imagined they were infected by someone known or unknown planned. Professor Stephen Reicher, of the University of St Andrews, a member of the Sage subcommittee advising behavioral science – who was not involved in any new work – said the study added weight to a long line of research that had reached similar conclusions. However, he said that despite the fact that experts had raised the issue, ministers in the UK had repeatedly supported the idea that those known to us posed less of a risk. For example, Minister Jacob Rees-Mogg said Conservative MPs did not need to wear masks during debates in the Commons because they knew each other and had a “friendly, brotherly spirit”. Reicher said studies have also found that people not only trust friends more, but also trust members of the same team, such as supporters of the same football team, even when they are strangers. “There is no moral crisis associated with infection. “Everyone can have Covid, whether friend or foe, acquaintance or stranger,” Reicher said. “And, paradoxically, the more we assume that ‘people like us’ will not have the virus, the more likely we are to catch it.”
