I’m not particularly into photography so I would probably have never heard of that effect if it were not for HN. That’s why I keep coming back here, I always find something interesting!
(This would still happen if the photographer kept the wide-angle lens, but then a lot more of the surroundings would have been included in the frame, making it obvious that the persons were far away. Whether tele/wide-angle "affects perspective" is a favourite topic of endless debate on photo-related Internet forums. The answer hinges on which parameters you maintain constant, and which ones you allow to vary.)