Social Distancing vs. Socializing: Does the Social Instinct Prevail Over the Evolutionary Instinct?

Avoiding infectious diseases is more than just an instinct; it’s a necessity for both humans and animals. But social interaction often takes precedence over social distancing.   Keeping one’s distance from animals with contagious diseases is not only common sense but a natural instinct. However, this does not necessarily mean that social distancing will be observed. Far from it. The finch, a sociable bird, learns to avoid animals exhibiting suspicious behaviors such as lethargy. The Caribbean spiny lobster, which typically lives in groups, can detect a chemical signal in the urine of sick lobsters and avoid the areas they occupy. Mandrills can recognize the feces of animals with parasites and avoid them. Social distancing isn’t just one-way; some animals that feel sick will also decide to quarantine themselves to prevent the spread of disease. This is the case with social insects, such as ants and bees, which deliberately leave the colony to go away and die without infecting the rest of the colony. While social distancing is often naturally observed in cases of visible illness, this is not necessarily the case when signs of infection go unnoticed, as with asymptomatic COVID-19 patients. A new study from the University of Pittsburgh examined the behavior of a small social fish, the guppy, when introduced into a new environment and thus potentially in contact with members of its species carrying infectious diseases. The result: like many social animals—whether birds, shrimp, or rodents—most fish prefer to stay near a reservoir with their conspecifics, despite the potential risk of infection. Only certain males, who are particularly susceptible to parasitic infections, seek to avoid contact. It would seem, then, that social animals would rather take the risk of getting sick than remain alone. The instinct to socialize often trumps the instinct to protect against disease, provided the disease is not visible. Thus, social finches avoid animals that are obviously sick. The same behavior can be observed in humans, who, on the whole, respond to infectious diseases just like any other social animal. The difference is that humans have the tools to deal with them. Global surveillance and communication, as well as the centralization of health services and governments, go hand in hand with the evolutionary instinct that tells us to stay away from areas of potential infection. These measures can be effective against pandemics, provided that guidelines are followed and humans resist their social instincts when necessary. But consistent with the behavior of social animals, including guppies, social distancing to avoid contracting the disease is all too rarely observed in humans. “No amount of Zoom or FaceTime can compensate for the benefits of instinctive social interactions,” lament the scientists leading the study. “These frustrating behavioral decisions, though entirely natural, will lead to the persistence of COVID-19 until the advent of the greatest weapon against emerging diseases that animals do not possess: vaccination.”