Coronavirus is changing human behaviour. We are all becoming more aware of proxemics and are washing
our hands more frequently. But another piece of advice is proving more difficult
to follow: the warning ‘don’t touch your face’ is easier said than done.
Dr Sara Cody, Director of the Santa Clara County Public Health Department, said “Today, start working on not touching your face — because one main way viruses spread is when you touch your own mouth, nose, or eyes.” Within a minute, the health officer had licked a finger.
Many behaviours are performed automatically (unconsciously).
Done thousands of times before, these actions have been passed to
System 1, and this makes overriding them a conscious act. Take a look at HRH Prince
Charles struggling to change a handshaking routine that’s become deep-set. He
does, eventually, replace the handshake with a namaste gesture but for how long.
Most of our actions are performed beyond our awareness. Typically, we must keep focused if any new behaviour isn’t to slip, replaced by our old automatic ones such as our face-touching and handshaking habits.
Handshaking is easier to avoid than face-touching. There are
two people involved in any handshake, so there are two chances that someone will
remember to avoid the behaviour. Face-touching also occurs much more often and
requires even less thought. It’s also the case that at times of anxiety, touching
the face becomes an often-used ‘adaptor’: a behaviour that is performed to help
someone adapt to their stress levels or environment.
Face-touching releases nervous energy. In engaging the nerve
endings in our lips and fingertips (of which there are many) we can ease our
stress and discomfort. Adaptors include facial distortions, tapping and
self-punishments such as nail-biting - lots of coronavirus spreaders.
The wearing of masks is now commonplace but this has been
shown to further increase the number of times faces are being touched. The
constant adjusting of the mask is the problem as they feel uncomfortable and unusual.
The most common masks don’t cover the eyes, and touching the eyes is a real issue when trying to stop the spread of Covid-19 as the eyes are a gateway for infections to enter into our bodies. It’s also the case that fingertips are increasingly placed in or near the eyes when we are anxious.
Wearing glasses can reduce this touching and help reduce the chances of infectious airborne droplets hitting the eyes.
As for replacement pacifiers, a stress-ball is better than an eyeball any day!
Dr Sara Cody, Director of the Santa Clara County Public Health Department, said “Today, start working on not touching your face — because one main way viruses spread is when you touch your own mouth, nose, or eyes.” Within a minute, the health officer had licked a finger.
Most of our actions are performed beyond our awareness. Typically, we must keep focused if any new behaviour isn’t to slip, replaced by our old automatic ones such as our face-touching and handshaking habits.
As for replacement pacifiers, a stress-ball is better than an eyeball any day!