How Will We Know We’re Past Pandemic?
By: Christyl Rivers
Tags: Culture, Health, Psychology, Surveillance, Technology

The psychology of shared trauma, and societal change

No magic Eight Ball, Christyl Rivers

For those who think we will ever go back to the lives pre-COVID-19, I am sorry to disappoint you.

Most experts — the people we really need to pay attention to — agree that even with testing, and contact tracing, our lives will be disrupted for some time to come. Just those two hoped-for changes: testing and tracing, will have their own effect on culture. Some people speak of an immunity passport, but will everyone feel that this is fairly and evenly applied? The reality of lost privacy is another change we will have to cope with for some time.

Then there is the reality that when we do go back out in public, it won’t be to stadium sports and concerts, and it will be with masks and scarves.

Hugs and handshakes, even if they do come roaring back for those of us who hunger for human touch again, will be awkward and challenging for most people.

Finally, as we move toward re-opening, every single person has a different story to tell about who has lost and who has won. These are stories not just about jobs and frayed social fabric, but about human heartbreak and death.

Shared strife

There really is a great psychological impact on the shared trauma, and loss, so many are still experiencing as eager talk about re-opening continues.

If you are an outgoing hugger of a person, you will most certainly at some point encounter someone who doesn’t share your enthusiasm. Likewise, when you are overly cautious (if that ever becomes a thing again) you will feel strange when seeing people intermingle as if it were a love-in at the last century Woodstock Rock Festival.

The truth is that like soldiers in combat, we could bond in new ways. But, it is also true that it won’t be a rose-strewn pathway.

What do we make of all these human emotions and feelings? It is important to take a deep breath and remember that we are imperfect human beings. We have to allow a slow and easy adjustment in order not to flare tempers, assign blame, or taking on vigilante stances of our fellow citizens.

If there was no agreement before as to what constitutes “privacy” attitudes about privacy are going to be amplified. This is because when people sense a real danger, even if they do it unconsciously, they will react with a bit more adrenaline, hormones, and dread. Or, on the other side of the spectrum, those who can’t wait to be super social again will wonder why everyone is being so aloof, and even hostile, in his or her perception.

The psychology of our human emotional response will have to be examined case by case, one interaction at a time.

Times change

However, human beings also have a very resilient way of accepting change in certain circumstances. For those of you who remember what airports were like pre-911, and how they changed post 9–11, you know what this sort of change is like. Now imagine that amplified to include all public places with new rules, new expectations, new protocol, and even new grumbling.

All of it is part of being a citizen of a society.

Many are hopeful that with such universal experience, many new rules will reflect the hard lessons that we have learned.

Every trauma teaches some lessons, we just have to stay aware that they may not be the lessons that drive change which everyone wants to see. For example, we may change our food habits to reflect that virus is spread by severe interference with nature, but that means changing everything about food, from where we source it, to where we serve it, and how we eat it.

If most people agree that factory farming or wildlife trafficking is dangerous to human health, new restrictions will go into effect. However, there will be fierce opposition to such change because that is the normal human response to any sweeping new transformations.

When simple hand-washing was introduced just over one hundred years ago, many physicians were opposed to the new measure. It takes decades, in most situations, for a completely new society to emerge which takes such behaviors as completely routine and normal.

Rose-colored glasses or through a glass, darkly?

Given the hugely impactful, and universal experience of COVD-19, I think the change will come more quickly. But then again, I suffer from psychological optimism, and just as many professionals have psychological pessimism.

We shall go through tumultuous change, in jobs, staying home, schooling, entertainment, and just eating. Let’s all be ready to put ourselves to the test.