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

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...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2021-07, Vol.16 (7), p.e0253621
Main Authors: Asri, Ankush, Asri, Viola, Renerte, Baiba, Föllmi-Heusi, Franziska, Leuppi, Joerg D, Muser, Juergen, Nüesch, Reto, Schuler, Dominik, Fischbacher, Urs
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Age groups
Altruism
Analysis
Behavior
Biology and Life Sciences
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
Disease transmission
Economics
Employees
Female
Health behavior
Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
Health Personnel - psychology
Health risks
Hospitals
Human behavior
Humans
Male
Masks
Medical personnel
Medical supplies
Medicine and Health Sciences
Middle Aged
Older people
Pandemics
People and Places
Per capita
Public health
Risk communication
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2
Social Sciences
Software
Viral diseases
Viruses
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Summary: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.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0253621