Swedish students are sloppy with social distance - but good at hygiene

Linköping University participates in an international research project in which students investigate how students reacted to the measures introduced following the covid 19 pandemic. This is the situation in ten countries studied, except Sweden, Portugal, the Netherlands, Italy, Ireland, India, France, Spain, Colombia and Belgium.

The Swedish students are thus good at hygiene, but poor at social distancing. Karl Wennberg, professor at Liu and who participates in the research project, believes that one of the main causes of the differences between students' behaviors in the different countries is different conditions.

- In Sweden, social distancing is a recommendation, while in other countries it is a crime for which you can be punished. The explanation for the Swedish students being good at hygiene may be that we have flu or winter sickness every year and then it is important to wash our hands, he says.

The best are the students in Spain. Both in terms of hygiene and social distancing. Karl Wennberg interprets it as an expression of Spain being severely affected by the covid 19 pandemic and long lived in isolation.

- You can understand that because they have basically been locked up for a long time, he says.

- We see that in Portugal and Ireland they have changed their behavior a lot compared to before covid 19. While in Belgium, India and especially Sweden they have not changed their behavior very much, says Karl Wennberg, who did the Swedish study together with postdoctoral doctor Srebrenka Letina and hopes that the study will provide important knowledge to evaluate various pandemic strategies.

Listen and see Professor Karl Wennberg in the video above.