Cargando…
Masks as a moral symbol: Masks reduce wearers’ deviant behavior in China during COVID-19
Since the outbreak of COVID-19, mask wearing has become a global phenomenon. How do masks influence wearers’ behavior in everyday life? We examine the effect of masks on wearers’ deviant behavior in China, where mask wearing is mostly a public-health issue rather than a political issue. Drawing on b...
Autores principales: | , , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
National Academy of Sciences
2022
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9564937/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36194635 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2211144119 |
_version_ | 1784808769196130304 |
---|---|
author | Lu, Jackson G. Song, Lesley Luyang Zheng, Yuhuang Wang, Laura Changlan |
author_facet | Lu, Jackson G. Song, Lesley Luyang Zheng, Yuhuang Wang, Laura Changlan |
author_sort | Lu, Jackson G. |
collection | PubMed |
description | Since the outbreak of COVID-19, mask wearing has become a global phenomenon. How do masks influence wearers’ behavior in everyday life? We examine the effect of masks on wearers’ deviant behavior in China, where mask wearing is mostly a public-health issue rather than a political issue. Drawing on behavioral ethics research, we test two competing hypotheses: (a) masks disinhibit wearers’ deviant behavior by increasing their sense of anonymity and (b) masks are a moral symbol that reduces wearers’ deviant behavior by heightening their moral awareness. The latter hypothesis was consistently supported by 10 studies (including direct replications) using mixed methods (e.g., traffic camera recording analysis, observational field studies, experiments, and natural field experiment) and different measures of deviant behavior (e.g., running a red light, bike parking in no-parking zones, cheating for money, and deviant behavior in the library). Our research (n = 68,243) is among the first to uncover the psychological and behavioral consequences of mask wearing beyond its health benefits. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9564937 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | National Academy of Sciences |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-95649372023-04-04 Masks as a moral symbol: Masks reduce wearers’ deviant behavior in China during COVID-19 Lu, Jackson G. Song, Lesley Luyang Zheng, Yuhuang Wang, Laura Changlan Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A Social Sciences Since the outbreak of COVID-19, mask wearing has become a global phenomenon. How do masks influence wearers’ behavior in everyday life? We examine the effect of masks on wearers’ deviant behavior in China, where mask wearing is mostly a public-health issue rather than a political issue. Drawing on behavioral ethics research, we test two competing hypotheses: (a) masks disinhibit wearers’ deviant behavior by increasing their sense of anonymity and (b) masks are a moral symbol that reduces wearers’ deviant behavior by heightening their moral awareness. The latter hypothesis was consistently supported by 10 studies (including direct replications) using mixed methods (e.g., traffic camera recording analysis, observational field studies, experiments, and natural field experiment) and different measures of deviant behavior (e.g., running a red light, bike parking in no-parking zones, cheating for money, and deviant behavior in the library). Our research (n = 68,243) is among the first to uncover the psychological and behavioral consequences of mask wearing beyond its health benefits. National Academy of Sciences 2022-10-04 2022-10-11 /pmc/articles/PMC9564937/ /pubmed/36194635 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2211144119 Text en Copyright © 2022 the Author(s). Published by PNAS. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/This article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) . |
spellingShingle | Social Sciences Lu, Jackson G. Song, Lesley Luyang Zheng, Yuhuang Wang, Laura Changlan Masks as a moral symbol: Masks reduce wearers’ deviant behavior in China during COVID-19 |
title | Masks as a moral symbol: Masks reduce wearers’ deviant behavior in China during COVID-19 |
title_full | Masks as a moral symbol: Masks reduce wearers’ deviant behavior in China during COVID-19 |
title_fullStr | Masks as a moral symbol: Masks reduce wearers’ deviant behavior in China during COVID-19 |
title_full_unstemmed | Masks as a moral symbol: Masks reduce wearers’ deviant behavior in China during COVID-19 |
title_short | Masks as a moral symbol: Masks reduce wearers’ deviant behavior in China during COVID-19 |
title_sort | masks as a moral symbol: masks reduce wearers’ deviant behavior in china during covid-19 |
topic | Social Sciences |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9564937/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36194635 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2211144119 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT lujacksong masksasamoralsymbolmasksreducewearersdeviantbehaviorinchinaduringcovid19 AT songlesleyluyang masksasamoralsymbolmasksreducewearersdeviantbehaviorinchinaduringcovid19 AT zhengyuhuang masksasamoralsymbolmasksreducewearersdeviantbehaviorinchinaduringcovid19 AT wanglaurachanglan masksasamoralsymbolmasksreducewearersdeviantbehaviorinchinaduringcovid19 |