The Collective Benefit Of Mask-Wearing

UnHerd ➤ Why make everyone wear masks — even people who are the least likely to spread the disease? (Read Paul Embery’s case against compulsion).

By Peter Franklin

Well, when it comes to R, every little bit helps — but, more importantly, the general rule creates a social norm. This makes it much harder for those who are most likely to infect others — “super-spreaders” — not to wear a mask. In other words, collective action has an impact over-and-above the sum of the individual actions.

Mask wearing is far from the only example. I’m old enough to remember when, in 1983, seatbelt wearing became compulsory for drivers in the UK. There were those who bitterly resented the new law — and, later, the requirement for passengers to buckle-up too. But there’s no doubt that compulsion worked — and not just because people feared being caught. It was the creation of a social norm and reinforcement of habit that did the trick.

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