People have false sense of security about Covid risks among friends – study

Researchers found that the presence of friends and family can lull people into a false sense of security.

According to marketing experts, people who caught Covid from a friend or family member are less likely to catch it again than people who have been exposed to it.

The University Carlos III in Madrid, Spain, says their experiments show that the friend shield effect appears to be stronger among those who are politically conservative rather than liberal.

Limiting interactions to close friends and family members is a common protective measure to reduce Covid-19 transmission risk, but the study findings show that this practice also unintentionally creates other issues, in that people tend to perceive reduced health risks and engage in potentially hazardous health behaviours.

The idea that those we feel closest and safest among may be the biggest risk is tied to the findings.

Experts have raised the issue of gatherings of friends and family over Christmas and other occasions during the Covid pandemic, with concerns that people tend to drop their guard among those close to them, raising the risk of infections spreading.

The researchers, Prof Eline De Vries and Dr Hyunjung Crystal Lee, carried out a series of online experiments involving participants in the US. In one task, the team split the participants into two groups and asked them to write down a few thoughts about a friend or an acquaintances. They were asked to read a paragraph suggesting junk food increased the risk of severe Covid, before being offered a special offer in an online shop for either chocolate bars and crisps or face masks.

27% of people who made a purchase after writing about a friend chose junk food, compared to 21% who wrote about an acquaintances.

The team found that people who were asked to imagine catching the disease from a friend planned to spend an average of $9.28 on items such as masks or hand sanitiser over the next two months.

The study added weight to a long line of research that had reached similar conclusions, according to Prof Stephen Reicher, who was not involved in new work.

He said that ministers in the UK had endorsed the idea that people familiar to us are less at risk. Conservative MPs don't need to wear masks during debates because they know each other, according to the minister.

Reicher said studies had shown that people trust friends more than they trust strangers, and that they trust supporters of the same football team more than they don't.

There is no moral judgement associated with being exposed. Reicher said anyone can have Covid, whether friend or foe.