How local partisan context conditions prosocial behaviors: Mask wearing during COVID-19
Open accessAbstract
Significance: Differences between Democrats and Republicans in rates of wearing a mask to stop the spread of COVID-19 are associated with the partisan balance of a neighborhood. The difference in rates grew larger as the share of Republicans in a neighborhood increased. This finding appears to be driven by decreased rates of mask wearing by Republicans who live among increasing numbers of Republicans (and not by Democrats in the same neighborhood). Theories about social pressure suggest these findings may be driven by the politicized and publicly observable nature of wearing a mask relative to other COVID-19 mitigation strategies, like vaccination. Neighborhood partisan composition was only weakly related to uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine and unrelated to uptake of flu vaccines.
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Republicans were less likely to wear a mask in public during the COVID-19 pandemic if their neighbourhood had a higher proportion of fellow Republicans living in it.
“Republicans were less likely to wear a mask in public during the COVID-19 pandemic if their neighbourhood had a higher (versus lower) proportion of fellow Republicans living in it325.”
From Cognitive–motivational mechanisms of political polarization in social-communicative contexts (2022) · cites this paper as [325]
The social context did not affect unobservable health behaviours such as vaccination, nor did it affect Democrats' behaviour with regard to any outcomes, including masking.
“However, the social context did not affect unobservable health behaviours such as vaccination, nor did it affect Democrats’ behaviour with regard to any outcomes, including masking325.”
From Cognitive–motivational mechanisms of political polarization in social-communicative contexts (2022) · cites this paper as [325]
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- Authors
- Baxter-King, R., Brown, J. R., Enos, R. D., Naeim, A., & Vavreck, L.
- Affiliations
- University of California, Los Angeles (US)
- Harvard University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Enos, Ryan D.
- Venue
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- Published
- 2022-05-17
- Volume
- 119
- Issue
- 21
- Pages
- e2116311119-e2116311119
- ISSN
- 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
- 1091-6490
- PMC
- PMC9173782
- OpenAlex
- W4280527164
- Cited by
- 45
- References
- 37
- Citations by year
- 2026: 8 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 6 · 2020: 1
- FWCI
- 29.40
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- HHS | NIH | National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (UL1TR001881)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Electoral Systems and Political Participation
- Social Sciences › Health › Vaccine Coverage and Hesitancy
- Social Sciences › Communication › Communication and COVID-19 Impact
- Keywords
- masking, COVID-19 pandemic, prosocial behavior, partisanship, neighborhood composition, Republican voters, public health recommendations, COVID-19 vaccination, influenza vaccination, public health compliance
- MeSH terms
- COVID-19, COVID-19 Vaccines, Altruism, Humans, Masks, Mass Behavior, Politics, United States, Vaccination
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