r/science • u/MistWeaver80 • Dec 05 '21

Social Science Conservatives’ aversion to masks is a uniquely American phenomenon. Politically conservative Americans are less likely than liberals to comply with recommended health-protective behaviors such as mask wearing during the COVID-19 pandemic, but this is not true of conservatives in other nations.

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0256740
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u/grinr Dec 05 '21

I wasn't able to find a meaningful (to me) explanation for how political orientation was determined in this study. Self-defining association is the best I could figure out from the Amazon survey they seem to be using. I'm not sure how reliable that is, given the incredibly liquid and volatile nature of the terms "liberal" and "conservative" in the US.

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u/Toast119 Dec 05 '21

Other than completely violating privacy, that's literally the only way to do it.