Survey: Americans' social distancing habits have tapered since July

Americans are less likely now than at any point since the early days of the coronavirus pandemic to say they are avoiding events with large crowds (70%), public places such as stores and restaurants (53%) and small gatherings (45%). Though each of these behaviors has changed only slightly from late August, they represent significant declines from mid-to-late July and new low points for each of their respective trends since Gallup’s initial March 13-15 reading. Still, the majority are avoiding public places and, in particular, large crowds…

Asked how often they have practiced social distancing in the past 24 hours, 40% of Americans currently say they have “always” and 32% say they have “very often” done so. The combined 72% is virtually unchanged from the 73% who gave one of these responses in late August, but like the indicators reported above, the trend has tapered somewhat since mid-July.