If customers use a shopping cart in the supermarket, it does not ensure that they keep 1.5 meters away from each other. This is the conclusion of researchers from the University of Amsterdam. What turns out to work: a reward.
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The researchers had customers wear a sensor that recorded the distance between them. This allowed them to determine how often and for how long people came within 1.5 meters of each other. Customers with a shopping cart came close to each other as often as customers without and therefore had just as much contact with others in the store. The researchers point out that the vast majority of contacts in the supermarket last less than 10 seconds.
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If the customers in the study received a bag of Easter eggs if they kept enough distance while shopping, this resulted in less and even shorter contact with each other. “Our research results provide concrete starting points for effectively and positively stimulating distancing in practice,” says UvA researcher Tessa Blanken.
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“Shops can use a traffic light to regulate crowds and a reward system to encourage distance. We’ve shown that this works, so it would be nice if it was actually put into practice.”
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