Re:Americans think they are better at social distancing than...
by danaliv on Monday May 18, 2020 @11:26AM
(#23223527)
Or the fundamental attribution error. If someone else does something wrong, it's because of who they are as a person; if I do something wrong, it's because of my special circumstances.
You can both feel the urge from your own brain, and far more comprehensively understand the consequences, of not doing a thing (employment, meeting a long term partner, friend, ...).
By contrast when you see a person on the street it's easy to think "rules say no hence bad".
As others state, you're also wired to think of the novel/interesting case and ignore the people holed up at home because they're invisible.