
Americans think they are better at social distancing than their neighbors - laurex
https://qz.com/1856224/has-covid-19-made-americans-more-judgmental-of-their-neighbors/
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standardUser
If perfect compliance was required we'd be suffering the consequence right
now. Turns out, the American way of half-assing it has been sufficient to slow
the spread of the virus more than enough to avert catastrophe. Even the
predictable, politically-motivated free-riders haven't been enough to render
our efforts ineffective (so far).

In the coming months, this is going to be more about endurance than strict
compliance. Better to praise people for the efforts they do make than to
berate them for failing to meet whatever strict criteria you've developed
after reading too many fear-mongering articles. That runner without a mask
almost certainly won't spread the virus, but a group of people having a
protest or an underground party or church service will! If we drive people to
abandon the cause because of purity tests, we will all suffer.

~~~
tensor
>If perfect compliance was required we'd be suffering the consequence right
now. Turns out, the American way of half-assing it has been sufficient to slow
the spread of the virus more than enough to avert catastrophe. Even the
predictable, politically-motivated free-riders haven't been enough to render
our efforts ineffective (so far).

I suspect that American's are the only ones in the world that share this view.
To the rest of us your response has been among the worst on the planet. We
watch in horror as you intentionally throw lives away.

~~~
standardUser
Per capita deaths in the US are far below the levels in Sweden, the
Netherlands, France, the UK, Italy and Spain. So it must be the _other_ parts
of the world watching in horror, because many other Western nations are
dealing with their own horror at the moment.

~~~
pstrateman
It's been truly amazing to me how few people understand per capita statistics.

Virtually everybody seems to think that the US is doing much worse than
Europe, when the exact opposite is the truth.

~~~
tzs
The US is doing better than Andorra, San Marino, Belgium, Spain, the UK,
Italy, Ireland, France, Sweden, and the Netherlands on per capita deaths. The
rest of Europe is doing better [1].

If we expand beyond Europe, the list of countries that the US is doing better
than remains the same. The list of countries doing better than the US
massively expands, to around 180 or more.

[1] [http://91-divoc.com/pages/covid-
visualization/](http://91-divoc.com/pages/covid-visualization/)

~~~
pstrateman
You're just wrong man.

[https://i.imgur.com/DqhlWRq.png](https://i.imgur.com/DqhlWRq.png)

Reported Deaths per Capita:

    
    
      1. San Marino
      2. Belgium
      3. Andorra
      4. Spain  
      5. Italy  
      6. United Kingdom  
      7. France  
      8. Sweden  
      9. Netherlands  
      10. Ireland
      

Not even in the top 10.

    
    
      11. US
    

Unreported Deaths in the developing world are without a doubt much worse.

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treebog
Do I think I’m better at social distancing than my neighbors? Yes. But when
I’m asked to rate my neighbors, I immediately think of the one neighbor I
always see out socializing on the street. I don’t think of all the neighbors I
never see, presumably because they’re hiding out at home. A form of
availability bias is coloring my perceptions here.

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zamfi
In other news, people also think they’re better drivers than their neighbors,
have smarter children then their neighbors, and are better looking than their
neighbors.

It’s a well-known bias:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Wobegon#The_Lake_Wobegon_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Wobegon#The_Lake_Wobegon_effect)

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sna1l
Passed someone yesterday not wearing a mask pointing out how other people were
not wearing masks :)

(In San Francisco)

~~~
downerending
Ha. SF described in a single line. :-)

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bo1024
Maybe they are! The friendship paradox says the average person's friends have
more social connections on average than the original person.

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esotericn
Isn't this a natural result of how empathy works?

You can both feel the urge from your own brain, and far more comprehensively
understand the consequences, of not doing a thing (employment, meeting a long
term partner, friend, ...).

By contrast when you see a person on the street it's easy to think "rules say
no hence bad".

As others state, you're also wired to think of the novel/interesting case and
ignore the people holed up at home because they're invisible.

~~~
danaliv
Or the fundamental attribution error. If someone else does something wrong,
it's because of who they are as a person; if I do something wrong, it's
because of my special circumstances.

~~~
esotericn
You've taught me the name for what I was attempting to explain in my first
post :)

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atiredturte
Isn't most of the data coming out of the states majorly skewed by the amount
of testing being done? Surely there are many more cases than are reported due
to this.

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throwlaplace
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_exceptionalism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_exceptionalism)

