Social distancing decreases an individual’s likelihood of contracting COVID-19

  1. Russell H. Fazio
  2. Benjamin C. Ruisch
  3. Courtney A. Moore
  4. Javier A. Granados Samayoa
  5. Shelby T. Boggs
  6. Jesse T. Ladanyi

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Abstract

Previous work establishes the effectiveness of social distancing for reducing COVID-19 transmission at the aggregate level: Locales in which restrictions were imposed experienced a reduction in spread of the virus. However, we know little about the effectiveness of social distancing at the level of the individual. Do individuals who engage in social distancing reduce their personal likelihood of contracting COVID-19? Or are these effects only evident in the aggregate? A longitudinal investigation involving 2,120 online participants demonstrated that individual differences matter. Participants who exhibited greater social distancing on a virtual behavior measure—simulations presenting graphical depictions of specific real-world scenarios, asking them to position themselves relative to others in the scene—were less likely to contract COVID-19 subsequently.

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  1. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.10.29.20222422: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board Statementnot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variableA total of 2,120 individuals, all US residents, did so (1,031 women, 1,074 men, 15 no response; Mage = 40.39, SDage = 15.34).

    Table 2: Resources

    No key resources detected.

    Results from OddPub: Thank you for sharing your data.

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  2. Version published to 10.1073/pnas.2023131118
  3. Version published to 10.1101/2020.10.29.20222422v1 on medRxiv