Changes in Behaviour Induced by COVID-19: Obedience to the Introduced Measures

Abstract

The pandemic of COVID-19 that has plagued our planet since the beginning of 2020, has disrupted the way of life of society in general. As in other pandemics suffered throughout history, isolation has been a crucial measure to avoid contagion, causing effects beyond health, in many areas of life. How society obtains economic resources, spends them, enjoys leisure, or simply interacts, is now different. The political and economic context has changed, freedom of movements and expectations are also different. All this generates changes in the behaviour of society that does not react uniformly in all countries. This chapter reviews some of the modifications in behaviour caused by the present circumstances, as what will happen in future pandemics is not predictable for sure. The emphasis is placed on obedience observed in different contexts to imposed restrictions. Homes have become workplaces, consumption patterns have changed, and the derived effects are not always beneficial or distributed equally across the social strata.

Development and validation of the Environmental Confinement Stressors Scale (ECSS-20)

“…The pandemic context resulting from COVID-19 has depicted a global emergency, from the health point of view, with more than 6,987,222 deaths to date [ World Health Organization (WHO), 2023 ], and in terms of the quality of life and mental health of people, due to the set of stressors that arose in this context (i.e., physical, social, economic, and psychological) ( Bavel et al, 2020 ; Ornell et al, 2020 ; Wang et al, 2020 ; Wetherall et al, 2022 ). Within these stressors are those that emerged from the indirect effects of health policies and containment efforts, specifically, the policies of confinement and social distancing ( Caqueo-Urízar et al, 2020 ), designed to reduce personal interactions and movements ( Maier and Brockmann, 2020 ; Mayr et al, 2020 ; Badenes-Plá, 2022 ; Yu et al, 2023 ), which generated changes in the social and daily activities of the population (e.g., studies, work, intimate relationships, financial management, home habitability) ( Ammar et al, 2020 ; Gloster et al, 2020 ; Marroquín et al, 2020 ; Akbari et al, 2021 ; Amerio et al, 2021 ; Gruber et al, 2021 ; Lal et al, 2021 ; Manchia et al, 2022 ; Quintana, 2022 ; von Keyserlingk et al, 2022 ).…”