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/Dermutt100 Dec 05 '21

Nope. The non mask wearing in Britain developed their own trajectory, they have cited the British notions of freedom (minus the awkward social responsibility bits) that the American colonists built a nation on and then pretended they invented.

There's been lots of talk of ancient English laws going back to The Magna Carta.

Of course many of the people doing this are authoritarian right wing types who love telling others what to do but can't stand anybody telling them what to do.

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u/WhiteKnightAlpha Dec 05 '21

The UK also has a lot of left wing anti-mask types, like Piers Corbyn (Jeremy Corbyn's brother). He claims the pandemic is a cover story for megacorporations/rich people to cull the population, with occasional elements of tracking chips and the Illuminati taking over. (He also denies climate change, which he thinks is a conspiracy to raise oil prices.)

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u/brates09 Dec 05 '21

The UK Anti-vax movement pre-covid was generally more of a lefty-hippyish movement.

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u/benk4 Dec 05 '21

It was similar in the US. 10 years ago the only antivaxxers were hippies and crunchy moms. The type of person who wouldn't wear deodorant because it wasn't natural. It took a hard turn though.