For weeks now, as COVID-19 restrictions across the country begin to ease (or, in some cases, even where they haven’t), national and local news outlets have relentlessly reported on a seeming torrent of people streaming into public spaces.
The coverage points to a common sense understanding: Spending two months sheltering in place with little-to-no human contact has produced an overpowering need for people to gather together outside their homes.
According to an exclusive new study, however, that media coverage belies a deeper truth: Anxiety over health and safety in public spaces still greatly outweighs the desire to leave home, and that disparity has only gotten larger as the pandemic has unfolded.