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Wearing a mask—For yourself or for others? Behavioral correlates of mask wearing among COVID-19 frontline workers

Author

Listed:
  • Ankush Asri
  • Viola Asri
  • Baiba Renerte
  • Franziska Föllmi-Heusi
  • Joerg D Leuppi
  • Juergen Muser
  • Reto Nüesch
  • Dominik Schuler
  • Urs Fischbacher

Abstract

Human behavior can have effects on oneself and externalities on others. Mask wearing is such a behavior in the current pandemic. What motivates people to wear face masks in public when mask wearing is voluntary or not enforced? Which benefits should the policy makers rather emphasize in information campaigns—the reduced chances of getting the SARS-CoV-2 virus (benefits for oneself) or the reduced chances of transmitting the virus (benefits for others in the society)? In this paper, we link measured risk preferences and other-regarding preferences to mask wearing habits among 840 surveyed employees of two large Swiss hospitals. We find that the leading mask-wearing motivations change with age: While for older people, mask wearing habits are best explained by their self-regarding risk preferences, younger people are also motivated by other-regarding concerns. Our results are robust to different specifications including linear probability models, probit models and Lasso covariate selection models. Our findings thus allow drawing policy implications for effectively communicating public-health recommendations to frontline workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Suggested Citation

  • Ankush Asri & Viola Asri & Baiba Renerte & Franziska Föllmi-Heusi & Joerg D Leuppi & Juergen Muser & Reto Nüesch & Dominik Schuler & Urs Fischbacher, 2021. "Wearing a mask—For yourself or for others? Behavioral correlates of mask wearing among COVID-19 frontline workers," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(7), pages 1-13, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0253621
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0253621
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Cass R. Sunstein, 2020. "The meaning of masks," Journal of Behavioral Economics for Policy, Society for the Advancement of Behavioral Economics (SABE), vol. 4(S), pages 5-8, June.
    2. Cornelia Betsch, 2020. "How behavioural science data helps mitigate the COVID-19 crisis," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 4(5), pages 438-438, May.
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