With COVID-19 still infecting several people around the world and vaccines still under trials, social distancing is the need of the hour. A six feet distance between individuals helps prevent the spread of infection.?
Another thing that is important is the wearing of face masks. It is something truly indispensable today. However, a novel research reveals that people who wear face masks become careless in following social distancing norms, and this is definitely not good.
This shocking revelation was discovered by psychologists at Warwick Business School. In their study, Dr Luckman and his fellow researchers showed some images to their 800 participants. The images included people doing activities like sitting, standing or walking.?
Each individual in the study was asked how close they would stand next to the individual in the image in indoor and outdoor settings in times when either one of the two or no one wore a mask.
Researchers discovered that in every situation, people were okay with a reduced distance between each other if they or the other person wore a mask. What’s more shocking is that people wearing masks were comfortable standing just 1.8 metres away from other people, compared to being over two metres away without a face mask.
It was also seen that people who believed them to be one of the most vulnerable to COVID-19 maintained their appropriate distance from other individuals.
Paper author and behavioural scientist Daniel Read explained, “Our results could be particularly relevant for countries where mask usage is now high, but social distancing guidelines have been relaxed. If countries need to return to greater levels of physical distancing due to a second wave of cases, that may be harder to implement than it was when mask use was low at the start of the pandemic.'
He added, “We need more evidence to determine at what point the risks of reducing physical distance outweigh the benefits of wearing a mask. Clearly, the greatest benefit results from using masks to complement social distancing, rather than replacing it.”