Isolation and other restrictions put in place to combat the COVID-19 pandemic have had a negative impact on people's cognitive abilities and mental health, the Open Evidence UOC research group noted.

The study reports that the shock caused by the situation reduced people's cognitive abilities, causing them to take more risks, ignore the risk of infection, and make less intelligent choices, including a tendency toward less altruism and a desire to punish others.

The study analyzes the relationship between the negative impact of pandemic control measures and people's cognitive functioning and risk, time, and social preferences.

They examined people from Spain, Italy, and the UK - three countries criticized for poor management of the pandemic, where isolation had a greater impact on their populations than other European states. Participants were asked to respond to questionnaires during the first and second waves of the pandemic.

The results of the study show that those who were more susceptible to the effects of isolation also experienced greater cognitive decline, made more risky decisions, and suffered from decreased civic engagement.

Instead of being more careful, the researchers said people were more likely to take risks because of the lockdown.