Will we ever trust crowds again?

People aren’t cringing around strangers and crowds because of pre-existing senses of fear or loathing. Instead, many people in these times of COVID-19 are simultaneously learning a new emotional experience, neuroscientists and psychologists say. It’s normal—and we might work through it once we get through the pandemic, writes Philip Kiefer. “Feeling nauseous at the thought of a dish that once brought on a bout of food poisoning is essentially the same thing as the squickiness you may now experience when someone gets too close in a crowd.”