How the Covid Pandemic Changed Our Body Language

As the Covid-19 pandemic continues on year after year, it has led to changes in our everyday behavior: masking indoors, social distancing, less physical contact, and a tendency to avoid dense social gatherings. These changes carry over to our nonverbal behavior. How has our everyday body language changed because of the pandemic? And will some of these changes be permanent?

Masking. Although masking indoors is on the decline, as people suffer from pandemic fatigue, there will likely still be some people who maintain the practice and some crowded places (e.g., airplanes, trains) where masks will be worn by a good number of cautious individuals. By masking one’s face, it becomes much harder to read the important facial expressions that give us information about what another is feeling and how they are reacting. Think of the friendly smile. It’s almost impossible to read behind a surgical mask.

The Personal Space Bubble. We all maintain a sort of “bubble” of personal space between us and others. Our bubble is smaller when we're around those we're close with and larger for strangers. Over time, we each develop a “comfortable” amount of personal space. Urging people during the pandemic to stay six feet away from others seems to have led to a subtle increase in our physical distancing. The unanswered question is whether or not this will be a permanent change, causing most of us to have larger “bubbles.”

The Air Kiss. In many parts of the U.S., but more commonly in Europe, there is a greeting of kissing a friend or relative on the cheek—in Europe, it may involve two or three kisses. Since the pandemic, there has been both a reduction in the use of cheek kissing as a greeting (substituted by a variety of more distant greetings) and more “air-kissing”—avoiding making lip-to-cheek contact, often with some space between the two faces.

Half-Hugs. When I first started doing research on greetings 45 years ago, men rarely hugged in greeting. Over the decades, male-to-male hugging became a much more common greeting, even leading to massive “bear hugs” among “bros.” Of course, women and mixed couples have always hugged often in greeting. I’ve noticed that during the pandemic, male-to-male hugs have tended to morph into a “half-hug”—putting one arm partway around the other’s shoulder. Moreover, due to the pandemic, the incidence of hugging in greeting generally is down, and the duration of any contact, full hug or half-hug, tends to be less.

The Fist Bump. In business settings, the handshake has been the accepted and “official” greeting. (You can read quite a bit from body language experts about the best ways to shake hands, and what different types of handshakes mean). Since the pandemic, in many business settings a fist bump, which offers less skin-to-skin contact has replaced the handshake. (Even the U.S. President recently fist bumped another head of state). In terms of formality, the handshake is more formal, and fist bumps have been used as a less casual greeting among friends and acquaintances in social settings. Perhaps handshakes may start to fade from our typical greeting behavior repertoire, replaced by less formal fist bumps or other greetings, in the same way that business dress has become more casual over the years. Only time will tell.

What body language alterations have you noticed during the time of the pandemic?