The generation doing the best with social distancing may surprise you

Last week, Dr. Deborah Birx, a member of the White House coronavirus task force, said that Millennials “are the core group that will stop this virus,” which might be good news saying that a new study shows Millennials, in keeping with typical Millennial characteristics, are the generation most likely to be practicing social distancing.

The study, done by Perksy, a next-gen market intelligence platform that conducts real-time research, showed that there was a drastic change in people’s daily habits compared to the week before.

The company conducted its first study on March 11 and asked people to report if the pandemic had changed their daily habits, and then asked the same question in a study conducted on March 19. In the March 11 study, 10% of people reported their daily habits have been changed, compared to 52% in the most recent study.

Millennials are leading the pack when it comes to positive behavioral changes

In total, 82% of respondents reported that they are practicing social distancing, with Millennials leading the pack as the generation most likely to have implemented a variety of behavioral changes due to the virus, including social distancing, avoiding public transport, and working from home.

Millennials are killing the social distancing game with 90% reporting that they are staying away from others as much as possible. According to the survey, 85% of Generation X is practicing social distancing, followed by 79% of the Baby Boomer generation and 74% of Generation Z.

Baby Boomers are still the generation least likely to be working from home at 27%, and Millennials are still the most likely at 48%. Gen Z follows up Millennials at 45% and Gen X comes after them with 41%.

On March 11, only 29% of people reported avoiding public transportation, but that stat has jumped up to nearly half, with 48% of respondents saying they are avoiding it. Millennials are also leading this pack with 57% of them saying they are avoiding it, compared to 54% of Gen Zers, 42% of Baby Boomers, and 40% of Gen Xers,

Panic about Coronavirus has doubled in the past week

According to the survey, widespread panic has not arrived yet, but nearly a third of consumers are very worried about Covid-19. Extreme worry doubled from the first to the second study, with 29% reporting they are very worried on March 19 compared to 15% on March 11.

Concern about the virus followed the same pattern between generations as the first study with Boomers still at the forefront with 39% very worried, compared to 33% of Gen X, 20% of Millennials, and 22% of Gen Z.

Older generations are still checking the news most frequently

The amount of people checking the news hourly for updates about the virus has more than doubled since the first study, 43% on March 19 compared to 20% on March 11. The amount of people checking the news at least once per day jumped from 71% on March 11 to 87% on March 19.

In keeping with trends on concern about the virus, the older generations are still checking for updates more frequently, with 51% of Baby Boomers reading Corona news every few hours, compared to 44% of Gen X, 42% of Millennials, and 35% of Gen Z.

According to the survey, rates of hourly checking have doubled in every generation since last week.

Generation Z has no clue what to do if they exhibit Coronavirus symptoms

Though Generation Z is tuned into social media during the Coronavirus pandemic, chances are they are probably paying more attention to memes on Twitter about social distancing than to information about the virus itself. According to the survey, 42% of Gen Zers only sort of know what to do if they exhibit symptoms and 14% said they either don’t know what to do or have no clue. At least Generation Z is the least likely to contract Coronavirus by touching others at work.

Looking at the Boomer generation, 19% said they sort of know what to do if they have symptoms and just 4% said they either don’t know what to do or have no clue.