Politicisation of mask-wearing was prominent during the pandemic, especially in several European countries and the US, where President Donald Trump weaponised the mask narrative in an attempt to bolster his election hopes.
In the UK, behavioural scientists had to push back against a government leadership that saw wearing masks as, in some cases, “nonsensical”.
Prof Halpern describes the effort taken to convince Boris Johnson, then Prime Minister, to wear a mask himself.
“We did share with him a slide pack at one point. It had a series of images of pretty much every single world leader wearing a mask, and then a picture with him not,” he recalls. This nudge was used to point out that “a normal thing for a world leader to do right now is wear a mask”.
Though this tactic proved successful, the uncertainty caused in the UK has had a huge impact, especially for the future.
Cultural nuance
Prof Kwong, Prof Teo, and Prof Halpern are in agreement that the key barrier to mask wearing en masse in the UK is not political, but cultural.
All three note the difference in response to mask-wearing across East Asia as opposed to much of the West. The impact of past experiences in many East Asian countries, including Singapore and Vietnam’s Sars outbreaks in 2003, and South Korea’s Mers encounter in 2015-17, means these countries’ governments are primed to respond to the pandemic.
“Because of that experience, they have changed their statutory laws to allow the state to have certain rights during a pandemic that trump individuals’ liberty. That is clearly from their experience with an outbreak that has had a devastating impact on individuals’ lives and society,” Prof Teo explained.
Experience is crucial. Prof Halpern describes it as a “behavioural and cultural imprint” that “in the same way that your body reacts to seeing the virus before… behaviourally some of the same is true. You can respond because the behavioural pathway is ready.” This allows for a “much clearer habit loop” for everyone, as well as for society.
It is not only experience that drives this cultural response. Prof Teo argues that in East Asian society there is a “greater sense of community spiritedness … where individuals’ action does have an impact on a greater ecosystem.”
This contrasts with many Western cultures that lack a collective mindset. “Loose cultures and the lighter social norms and the greater emphasis on individuality and freedom and choice, independent of political party, mean that it’s harder to get people to do something they don’t want to do for the common good,” Prof Kwong said. “Even if it’s something as simple or as easy as wearing a mask.”
The collectivist mindset
Prof Halpern argues that there is a link between experience and collectivist cultures. According to research, the key factor behind driving cultures to become ‘tight’ in the first place is large-scale disaster.
“Natural disasters, earthquakes, tsunamis, even pandemics, drive societies to become tighter, because you literally learn that we need to do this together or something bad happens,” he said.
This suggests that for many countries that have faced a pandemic such as Covid-19 for the first time, the response to a future pandemic may be more prepared and less individualistic.
This idea of a collectivist mindset as a reason for mask-wearing is supported by a recent study into the culture of mask usage by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which considered the 50 states of the US, 349,000 individuals in 29 countries, and over 277,000 Facebook users in 67 countries.
The research provides evidence that “people in more collectivistic (versus individualistic) regions are more likely to wear masks”, as well as strongly suggesting that culture “fundamentally shapes how people respond to crises like the Covid-19 pandemic”.
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