Abstract
Despite the enforced lockdown regime in late March 2020 in Russia, the phenomenon of the continued virus spreading highlighted the importance of studies investigating the range of biosocial attributes and spectrum of individual motivations underlying the permanent presence of the substantial level of spatial activity. For this matter, we conducted a set of surveys between March and June 2020 (N = 492). We found that an individual’s health attitude is the most consistent factor explaining mobility differences. However, our data suggested that wariness largely determines adequate health attitudes; hence, a higher level of wariness indirectly reduced individual mobility. Comparative analysis revealed the critical biosocial differences between the two sexes, potentially rooted in the human evolutionary past. Females were predisposed to express more wariness in the face of new environmental risks; therefore, they minimize their mobility and outdoor contacts. In contrast to them, the general level of spatial activity reported by males was significantly higher. Wariness in the males’ sample was less associated with the novel virus threat, but to a great extent, it was predicted by the potential economic losses variable. These findings correspond to the evolutionary predictions of sexual specialization and the division of family roles.
Highlights
Human spatial activity and daily dynamics of an individual’s mobility have obtained unprecedented importance in the COVID-19 pandemic
The most consistent predictor of the observed range in variation of activity level demonstrated in our study was a health attitude variable
In the casual pathways, we demonstrated that the level of worry was significantly associated with sex (Estimates = 0.345; z-value = 3.954; P(>|z|) < 0.001), in that females reported a higher level of wariness in a context of the COVID-19 pandemic
Summary
Human spatial activity and daily dynamics of an individual’s mobility have obtained unprecedented importance in the COVID-19 pandemic. The study of spatial activity can give us important information about a wide range of socio-economic phenomena and expand our understanding of human behavior in the context of its interaction with the modern highly urbanized environment both in periods of stability and in periods of critical environmental changes, including the emergence of a new infectious disease. Quarantine procedures that were initialized by governments pursued social distancing, reducing individual contacts and reducing the degree of physical activity related to daily and weekly spatial mobility. This public health emergency instructions was taking place in a media environment saturated with misinformation, partisan infighting, and messaging undermining health experts [2].
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