Public perceptions and experiences of social distancing and social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic: A UK-based focus group study

Simon N Williams; Christopher J Armitage; Tova Tampe; Kimberly Dienes

Despite reporting their own high degree of adherence, many participants suggested that they had seen instances of non-adherence in others. Observations of non-adherence were associated with three main factors. First, non-adherence was seen to be due to a lack of social conscience. Participants were generally critical of what they perceived to be a minority of "inconsiderate" (Participant 27, female, age 46, London) or "arrogant" (Participant 17, male, age 22, South Wales) individuals who were not observing instructions related, for example, to public gatherings and not keeping a distance of >2 metres apart from others when out for daily walks or runs. Second, non-adherence was seen to be due to a lack of understanding. For example, participants argued that people who were not observing social distancing lacked knowledge over how they could help spread the disease even if they themselves were not exhibiting symptoms. Third, non-adherence was seen to be due to a lack of enforcement. Many participants were critical that police were choosing to enforce social distancing restrictions or were not able to (due for example to the ambiguity of terms such as "essential" as discussed in the previous section). Others discussed how, despite their best efforts, supermarkets appeared to struggle to implement social distancing.