Research explains why some people still go outside amid COVID-19

Why people are not staying at home despite the COVID-19 outbreak? Are they not taking it seriously or is there a bigger reason as to why they are unable to do it?

Why people are not staying at home

Because of the coronavirus outbreak, commonly known as COVID-19, people are advised to stay at home to prevent the virus from spreading further. As of now, social distancing is the main solution for the said pandemic. But despite the dangers of the disease and how fast the transmission is, why are some people still not staying at home? Do they just not care at all? Or is there a deeper reason as to why they are doing this?

Image from Freepik

According to research, when people are most scared, they tend to act irrationally, especially now that we’re in a crisis. Surely, none of us have anticipated this so we should try to understand why some are still unable to wrap their heads around the situation.

Take also into consideration that not everyone has the luxury to “stay indoors”. Despite this pandemic being a global issue, remember that we are all dealing with it differently.

Let’s take a look at these two situations where people refused to stay at home:

1. People flocking to Miami Beach, refusing to cancel “springbreak” activities

In this case, we’ll see Americans protesting against the closing of Miami beach because of springbreak activities that were apparently scheduled months prior. They were saying that the coronavirus is not that serious and they just want to make the most out of their vacation. We can infer from this that even though half of the world is already alarmed because of the outbreak, some can’t still get a grasp of what’s going on.

And this is actually a natural human response when faced with an unfamiliar and difficult situation.

Image from Getty Images

2. Filipinos unable to follow community quarantine guidelines as they still need to go to work

We have heard several news about people being unable to follow community quarantine guidelines because despite the government advising people to “work from home”, some are of course unable to do so. Especially frontliners who still have to go to work every day and be in service for all of us. There are also some who won’t be paid when they don’t show up at work, so how else are they going to feed their families if they just stay home?

Image from Freepik

How do we approach this situation?

Now that we see different perspectives, I hope that we don’t easily judge people when they refuse to stay at home. By now, we are all aware of how dangerous this COVID-19 is. This doesn’t mean that staying indoors and practicing social distancing is not important. If you and your family are able to stay indoors, then good for you.

According to the study, when we follow the rules, we also motivate at least 2-3 people to do the same.

Parents, take this time to teach your kids about empathy as well. Let’s teach them to be less judgmental and more understanding of other people.

SOURCE: Psychology Today

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