To Get People to Wear Masks, Try Comparing Them to Seatbelts and Helmets

A new survey looks at what the government can do to influence mask-wearing. Only one message had any positive effect.

Is there anything the government can say to get people to wear masks during a pandemic? There’s one message that had some positive effect, at least in Illinois.

A recent survey of more than than 2,000 state residents offered respondents five different messages and gauged whether they made people more or less likely to wear a mask in public, as compared to a control group that saw no message. Comparing masks to helmets and seatbelts was the only message that had a positive impact on people’s decisions.

The finding adds evidence to the argument that linking masks to safety measures already widely adopted — and legally enforced — could increase compliance with mask mandates. It may also reflect hard-won progress in persuading more Americans to buckle their seatbelts in the first place.

Wearing a mask in most public places has been mandatory in Illinois since May 1. In August, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker introduced new emergency rules to penalize businesses that fail to enforce mask-wearing, and even made it a felony to attack a retail-worker enforcing such a rule. Despite all that, only 66% of Illinois residents said they “always” wore a mask when leaving their homes in the last week, the survey by Civis Analytics found. The survey, conducted during the week of June 22, informed a new $5 million campaign to persuade more people to wear masks.

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Πηγή: bloomberg.com