Study identifies stages of habit forming during a pandemic

Comfort, Fear, Learning and Adjusting and Establishment are the four stages of emotional reactions and behavior demonstrated during pandemics, according to a new study by JoyCorps. Comfort is a pre-pandemic stage, following by fear — two-plus weeks during which people come to grips with their emotional reactions. Learning and adjusting covers five-plus weeks, when customers change habits and create new ways of living. Establishment follows, when practices begun in the earlier phases cement themselves into new habits.