# The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Perception of Globalization and Consumer Behavior
## 4 Research Findings and Discussion
The next most common definition at 13.7% was globalization as \"a tendency in the world economy, politics, demography, social life and culture, consisting in the spreading of analogous phenomena, regardless of the geographical context and the economic advancement of a given region\" [40], and the fewest students at 7.1% defined globalization as \"a phenomenon related to revolutionary technical (computerization, Internet, satellite communications), political (collapse of the communist system in Central and Eastern Europe) and economic changes (privatization, deregulation, commercialization)\" [36]. An interesting phenomenon can also be observed in December 2020, where the number of people pointing to \"increasing interdependence and integration of states, aimed at creating a global society, accelerated by the proper use of information technologies\" increased to 40.5% (a difference in plus of 9.71%). An upward trend can also be noticed in the case of the definition of \"the spread of analogous phenomena, regardless of the geographical context and the economic advancement of a given region,\" but the share of this response was only 16.22% (an increase of 2.47%). Perhaps the respondents indicated such a relationship due to the commonality of experiences related to the pandemic and the consequences of the above phenomenon for the economy, demography, politics, society and culture. In other cases, a decrease in the share of indications of other definitions was observed. The definition referring to globalization as \"the process of economic and social changes causing a rapid flow of goods in the material, financial and information sphere as well as greater homogenization of culture throughout the world\" recorded a decline of 3.03%. In the case of the definition emphasizing \"the increase in interdependence, integration, joint influence and unification in the economic and social sphere in the world, intensifying with rapid technological progress,\" the group of respondents decreased by 9.26%. The least popular response recorded a decline as well, but at a very modest level of only 0.13%. During the survey, respondents were asked to assess their financial situation. The first question in this part of the survey focused on the students' subjective assessment of their material situation before and during the pandemic, and 44.8% indicated that their situation has not changed since the outbreak of the pandemic. Surprisingly, as many as 39.6% stated that it has improved (29.2% said rather yes, and 10.4% said it had improved considerably). Perhaps this tendency is related to the fact that the population of university students is at the stage of life where they still rely on their parents to support them or if they work, they just need to cover their own individual everyday needs. Another possibility is that they are more selective in terms of their purchasing decisions, and as a result they perceive their financial situation as stable. Furthermore, limited possibilities with respect to socializing, traveling or going out, either because of the restrictions imposed by the government or the respondents' own need to take precautions and limit the risk of potential exposure to COVID-19, could contribute to reduced spending and more reasonable choices. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many people to stay home. This kind of behavior,sometimes referred to as cocooning, might be enforced by external bans or an internal need to take precautions or reduce the risk of infection. This dichotomy is quoted in multiple literary sources: \"unprecedented numbers of people have either willingly entered social isolation or been compelled to do so by orders from local, state, and federal officials to prevent the virus from spreading\" (S  
The need to take precautions and ensure safety against infection among consumers is also reflected in the surveys carried out by [PERSON] and [PERSON] (2020) [9] and the work by [PERSON] and [PERSON] [44].