What predicts attitudes about mask wearing?

Abstract

What explains differences in attitudes towards wearing protective face masks to limit the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus? We investigated potential drivers of attitudes about mask wearing as part of a longitudinal study during the COVID-19 pandemic (N-participants = 711, N-countries = 36), focusing on people’s perceptions and feelings about seeing others in their local communities wearing masks. We found that both stress about COVID-19 and the local incidence rate of COVID-19 predicted these attitudes, but perceived risk of infection did not. We also found that older and politically right-leaning respondents tended to have more negative attitudes towards wearing masks, while those with more concern for future consequences have more positive attitudes. Individuals with a greater vulnerability to COVID-19 as well as those with increased disease-related stress reported inconsistent emotional reactions to seeing people wear masks in public. For example, older participants were likely to either strongly agree or strongly disagree that seeing others wear masks led to feelings of anxiety, and some individuals with high disease-related stress reported greater feelings of anxiety, whereas others reported increased feelings of safety, when seeing people wear masks in public. These findings highlight some of the demographic, psychological, and environmental factors that were associated with respondents’ attitudes toward face masks and will be of use to health policy efforts aiming to increase mask wearing and other protective behaviors.

Mask wearing behavior across routine and leisure activities during COVID-19

“…We found that people who reported greater COVID-19-related stress and people with a greater consideration of future consequences were more likely to report that they are motivated to wear a mask to protect others and that they believe it is the right thing to do. We also found that people politically inclined to the right, relative to people politically inclined to the left, were less likely to report feeling safe when they see others wear a mask in public and were also less likely to believe that wearing a mask is the right thing to do (Isch et al, 2021).…”

“…In the following section we contextualize findings from the present study by integrating results from our previous work employing the same cohort of participants in which we investigated the correlations between the prevalence of COVID-19, demographics, perceived risk of infection, COVID-19-related stress, and time orientation with mask wearing (Guevara Beltran et al, 2020), and our findings examining how these same factors influenced mask wearing attitudes and intentions (Isch et al, 2021).…”

“…The present work builds on our previous papers looking at mask wearing in the time of COVID-19 (Guevara Beltran et al, 2020;Isch et al, 2021). In this paper we first tested whether people were more likely to wear masks during routine activities (e.g., during work) compared to leisure activities (e.g., dining at a restaurant).…”

“…To this end, in previous work we investigated mask wearing behavior during in-person interactions and the factors that were associated with mask wearing, paying special attention to perceived risk of infection and pandemic-related stress as likely primary predictors of mask wearing behavior (Guevara Beltran et al, 2020). We have also investigated the factors that predicted mask wearing attitudes and intentions (Isch et al, 2021).…”

“…In a previous study we investigated the extent to which the local prevalence of COVID-19, demographics, time orientation, perceived risk of infection and COVID-19-related stress predicted mask wearing attitudes and intentions (Isch et al, 2021). We found that people who reported greater COVID-19-related stress and people with a greater consideration of future consequences were more likely to report that they are motivated to wear a mask to protect others and that they believe it is the right thing to do.…”