A new study finds consumers are more cautious about COVID-19 now than a couple of months ago.     

A survey from data intelligence firm Morning Consult finds just 28% of Americans feel comfortable going to a shopping mall, while only 15% are OK with going to the gym. The leisure activity people were most comfortable with was going out to eat - at 31%.

Joanna Piacenza tracks consumer confidence for Morning Consult.

"There was a three-month low in the share who said they feel safe dining out at restaurants,” says Piacenza. "It was creeping up week by week. That changed in June … roughly one-third are now saying that they're comfortable doing a number of leisure activities, and it really hasn't budged since."

Whether it’s going shopping or on vacation, research finds political views have a lot to do with how comfortable people feel. Republicans were twice as likely as Democrats to feel comfortable taking part in almost all leisure activities. 

Given how the virus is more serious for older people, one might think age would also be a big factor – but the research finds it actually isn’t. The survey found millennials as a whole aren’t taking many more risks than their parents. Just 33% were comfortable dining out - only a slight increase over baby boomers at 30%.

Millennials were more likely than their parents to be comfortable at amusement parks, gyms or going on vacation. But no more than a third were comfortable with any leisure activity.

"I think this should be a warning sign for a lot of consumer-facing companies,” says Piacenza. "Huge swaths of your consumer base don't feel comfortable doing the things that they normally would be doing, including, you know, visiting your stores or you know, going out to eat. And after nine weeks of the same, I don't really see this changing much."