The COVID‐19 pandemic brought the world to a halt. Since early 2020, social life has changed for many people around the world. Government restrictions and new social norms led to a reduction in mobility (Google, 2020), avoidance of public transport, cancellation of the majority of large events such as concerts, festivals, religious and sports events, and the temporary closing down of meeting places such as cafes, restaurants, museums or theatres. The COVID‐19 outbreak and measures undertaken by almost all the countries around the world pose numerous threats to people's psychological well‐being; thus, we believe that focusing on our closest social environment is greatly needed. Both relative lack of social relations (Tay et al., 2013) and negative emotions (Huppert, 2009) strongly predict overall mortality and disease outcomes, and the threat of SARS‐CoV‐2 may increase anxiety levels (Karwowski et al., 2020) and prejudice toward other nationalities (Sorokowski et al., 2020), rendering any effort to understand stress in isolated or quarantined individuals during the COVID‐19 pandemic even more important. Moreover, to understand possible negative effects, it is important to unpick the pre‐existing factors that can predict the stress levels of people in quarantine or isolation.