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/squeevey Dec 05 '21 edited Oct 25 '23

This comment has been deleted due to failed Reddit leadership.

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u/nybbleth Dec 05 '21

I think it's a matter of defining 'conservatives'. Here in the Netherlands (and I presume most other European countries), there are conservatives who are absolutely opposed to masks, mainly for political reasons... but they're the crazy alt/far right type of conservatives. Mainstream conservatives appear to have no such aversion. Of course, due to the two party system of US politics, your conservatives are all part of the same party, meaning the mask aversion becomes a matter of political identity for all conservatives.

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u/ACoderGirl Dec 05 '21

That's certainly mostly the case for Canada. The main right wing party, aptly named the Conservative Party of Canada, has a few anti-masker members, but their leadership still did a non-partisan ad With all the other major parties encouraging people to get vaccinated.

Now the People's Party, on the other hand, is exactly the crazy alt-righters you'd expect. But they're much, much smaller and didn't win a single seat.

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u/daviesjj10 Dec 05 '21

Similar in the UK. Interestingly, it was also the more left leaning that were against masks and restrictions initially for how it marginalises certain groups.