Social and behavioral consequences of mask policies during the COVID-19 pandemic
- Author(s)
- Cornelia Betsch, Lars Korn, Philipp Sprengholz, Lisa Felgendreff, Sarah Eitze, Philipp Schmid, Robert Böhm
- Abstract
Mandatory and voluntary mask policies may have yet unknown social and behavioral consequences related to the effectiveness of the measure, stigmatization, and perceived fairness. Serial cross-sectional data (April 14 to May 26, 2020) from nearly 7,000 German participants demonstrate that implementing a mandatory policy increased actual compliance despite moderate acceptance; mask wearing correlated positively with other protective behaviors. A preregistered experiment (n = 925) further indicates that a voluntary policy would likely lead to insufficient compliance, would be perceived as less fair, and could intensify stigmatization. A mandatory policy appears to be an effective, fair, and socially responsible solution to curb transmissions of airborne viruses.
- Organisation(s)
- External organisation(s)
- Universität Erfurt, University of Copenhagen
- Journal
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Volume
- 117
- Pages
- 21851-21853
- No. of pages
- 3
- ISSN
- 0027-8424
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2011674117
- Publication date
- 09-2020
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 501021 Social psychology
- Keywords
- Portal url
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/c7a54424-7e0e-4cb5-b86c-f04e34f3ac58