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Large Gatherings? No, Thank You. Devaluation of Crowded Social Scenes During the COVID-19 Pandemic

In most European countries, the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic (spring 2020) led to the imposition of physical distancing rules, resulting in a drastic and sudden reduction of real-life social interactions. Even people not directly affected by the virus itself were impacted in their physical an...

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Autores principales: Massaccesi, Claudia, Chiappini, Emilio, Paracampo, Riccardo, Korb, Sebastian
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8201791/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34135838
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.689162
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author Massaccesi, Claudia
Chiappini, Emilio
Paracampo, Riccardo
Korb, Sebastian
author_facet Massaccesi, Claudia
Chiappini, Emilio
Paracampo, Riccardo
Korb, Sebastian
author_sort Massaccesi, Claudia
collection PubMed
description In most European countries, the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic (spring 2020) led to the imposition of physical distancing rules, resulting in a drastic and sudden reduction of real-life social interactions. Even people not directly affected by the virus itself were impacted in their physical and/or mental health, as well as in their financial security, by governmental lockdown measures. We investigated whether the combination of these events had changed people's appraisal of social scenes by testing 241 participants recruited mainly in Italy, Austria, and Germany in an online, preregistered study conducted about 50 days after the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak in Europe. Images depicting individuals alone, in small groups (up to four people), and in large groups (more than seven people) were rated in terms of valence, arousal, and perceived physical distance. Pre-pandemic normative ratings were obtained from a validated database (OASIS). Several self-report measures were also taken, and condensed into four factors through factor analysis. All images were rated as more arousing compared to the pre-pandemic period, and the greater the decrease in real-life physical interactions reported by participants, the higher the ratings of arousal. As expected, only images depicting large gatherings of people were rated less positively during, compared to before, the pandemic. These ratings of valence were, however, moderated by a factor that included participants' number of days in isolation, relationship closeness, and perceived COVID-19 threat. Higher scores on this factor were associated with more positive ratings of images of individuals alone and in small groups, suggesting an increased appreciation of safer social situations, such as intimate and small-group contacts. The same factor was inversely related to the perceived physical distance between individuals in images of small and large groups, suggesting an impact of lockdown measures and contagion-related worries on the representation of interpersonal space. These findings point to rapid and compelling psychological and social consequences of the lockdown measures imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic on the perception of social groups. Further studies should assess the long-term impact of such events as typical everyday life is restored.
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spelling pubmed-82017912021-06-15 Large Gatherings? No, Thank You. Devaluation of Crowded Social Scenes During the COVID-19 Pandemic Massaccesi, Claudia Chiappini, Emilio Paracampo, Riccardo Korb, Sebastian Front Psychol Psychology In most European countries, the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic (spring 2020) led to the imposition of physical distancing rules, resulting in a drastic and sudden reduction of real-life social interactions. Even people not directly affected by the virus itself were impacted in their physical and/or mental health, as well as in their financial security, by governmental lockdown measures. We investigated whether the combination of these events had changed people's appraisal of social scenes by testing 241 participants recruited mainly in Italy, Austria, and Germany in an online, preregistered study conducted about 50 days after the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak in Europe. Images depicting individuals alone, in small groups (up to four people), and in large groups (more than seven people) were rated in terms of valence, arousal, and perceived physical distance. Pre-pandemic normative ratings were obtained from a validated database (OASIS). Several self-report measures were also taken, and condensed into four factors through factor analysis. All images were rated as more arousing compared to the pre-pandemic period, and the greater the decrease in real-life physical interactions reported by participants, the higher the ratings of arousal. As expected, only images depicting large gatherings of people were rated less positively during, compared to before, the pandemic. These ratings of valence were, however, moderated by a factor that included participants' number of days in isolation, relationship closeness, and perceived COVID-19 threat. Higher scores on this factor were associated with more positive ratings of images of individuals alone and in small groups, suggesting an increased appreciation of safer social situations, such as intimate and small-group contacts. The same factor was inversely related to the perceived physical distance between individuals in images of small and large groups, suggesting an impact of lockdown measures and contagion-related worries on the representation of interpersonal space. These findings point to rapid and compelling psychological and social consequences of the lockdown measures imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic on the perception of social groups. Further studies should assess the long-term impact of such events as typical everyday life is restored. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-05-31 /pmc/articles/PMC8201791/ /pubmed/34135838 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.689162 Text en Copyright © 2021 Massaccesi, Chiappini, Paracampo and Korb. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Massaccesi, Claudia
Chiappini, Emilio
Paracampo, Riccardo
Korb, Sebastian
Large Gatherings? No, Thank You. Devaluation of Crowded Social Scenes During the COVID-19 Pandemic
title Large Gatherings? No, Thank You. Devaluation of Crowded Social Scenes During the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_full Large Gatherings? No, Thank You. Devaluation of Crowded Social Scenes During the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_fullStr Large Gatherings? No, Thank You. Devaluation of Crowded Social Scenes During the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_full_unstemmed Large Gatherings? No, Thank You. Devaluation of Crowded Social Scenes During the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_short Large Gatherings? No, Thank You. Devaluation of Crowded Social Scenes During the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_sort large gatherings? no, thank you. devaluation of crowded social scenes during the covid-19 pandemic
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8201791/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34135838
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.689162
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