A psychologist’s guide to changing the minds of anti-maskers
How to encourage mask wearing
Just as psychology can help explain why people may reject masks, it can also offer guidance on how to get people to accept them. Avariety of techniquesfrom social psychology can be used to persuade people to comply with health advice such as mask wearing, social distancing, and self-isolating.
One key persuasion method isportraying consensus. When you show people that an attitude is shared (or not) by others, they are more likely to adopt it. Seeing someone wearing a mask makes it more likely that others will do the same. Persuasion strategies could therefore focus on making sure that people perceive mask wearing as widespread – perhaps by depicting it frequently in the media or by making it mandatory in certain places.
We also know fromprevious studiesthat people are more likely to comply with public health guidelines if they are clear, precise, simple, and consistent – and if theytrust the sourcefrom which they come.
But the effectiveness of these sorts of “one-size-fits-all” approaches to persuasion and behavioral change are likely to be limited. Initial findings in the area ofpersonalized persuasionsuggest it might be more effective to try bespoke approaches for people, based on combinations of their key characteristics (their “psychographic profiles.”)
For example, in arecent pieceof non-COVID research we identified three main personality profiles. Those who are more shy, socially inhibited, and anxious tend to report being more likely to be persuaded by those in authority, whereas those who are more self-oriented and manipulative tend to feel the opposite; they report being less likely to be influenced by authority figures.
Moreover, those in the third group – who are agreeable, extroverted, and conscientious – report being more likely to be persuaded to do something if it is consistent with what they have done before, and less likely if it requires them to change their position. This means if they have decided in the past that wearing masks is a bad thing, they’re more likely to resist any subsequent efforts to make them wear one.
A recent article concluded thatshouting at peopleto wear masks won’t help, and this research into personalized persuasion backs this up. Only those in the shy and anxious group would be likely to respond well to such a direct and heavy-handed tactic. A far better strategy would be to try an empathetic approach that seeks to understand the varying motivations of different groups of people – including whether there is psychological reactance at play – and thentailor messagesto individuals accordingly.
This article byHelen Wall, Senior Lecturer in Psychology,Edge Hill University;Alex Balani, Senior Lecturer in Psychology,Edge Hill University, andDerek Larkin, Senior Lecturer in Psychology,Edge Hill Universityis republished fromThe Conversationunder a Creative Commons license. Read theoriginal article.
Story byThe Conversation
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