Friends ask friends to wear masks.

 

Public shaming is very popular these days.  Here's what my students had to say about it last month...

 

http://pjlehrer.blogspot.com/2020/11/should-we-be-shaming-people-into-doing.html

 

I get it.  It's very tempting to call someone out about their bad behavior.  The problem is - who gets to decide what's bad?

 

President-elect Biden has been shaming Trump publicly over the past few weeks in an effort to get him to do his job.  Trump's reaction?  He's playing golf.

 

We really shouldn't be surprised.  Shaming is not on the list of most effective persuasion techniques.

 

What is on the list is liking.  Research shows that taking a few minutes to establish commonalities - which leads to liking, prior to negotiations, results in successful outcomes 90% of the time versus 55%  if this step is skipped. (Cialdini, 2020)

 

Every time we can get another person to wear a mask we all win. 

 

So focus your efforts on people who like you.  Explain that you wear your mask to protect them.  Ask them to do the same for you. 

 

You never know, it might just work.

 

 

Cialdini, R. (2020) Science of Persuasion.  Influence at Work.  retrieved December 30, 2020, from

https://www.influenceatwork.com/principles-of-persuasion/

If your friends don't wear masks, you won't either.

We all belong to a variety of tribes that influence our behavior. The closer the association we have with the tribe, the more likely we are to follow their cues.  

A study published in The American Journal of Health, found that if your friends are overweight, so are you.  That's because we change our habits to mirror those of our friends, even if we are unaware that we are doing it. (Junge, 2011) 

Remember the last time you went to dinner with friends?  Did someone order a drink?  If they did, did everyone else?  What about dessert?

 

Research also tells us that 60% of us care deeply about belonging to the tribe and that people like others who are similar to themselves.

So not wearing a mask becomes a way to affiliate with the group regardless of potential consequences.

How sad is that?

---

Junge, C. (2011, May 24)  How your friends make you fat - the social network of weight.  harvard.edu.  Retrieved March 3, 2020, from  https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/how-your-friends-make-you-fat%E2%80%94the-social-network-of-weight-201105242666

Is fear the real reason people won't wear masks?

Nobody likes wearing masks.  They're uncomfortable, it's difficult to talk in them and they mess up your hair.

But as of this morning, at least 2.6 million Americans have Covid-19, and 127,461 have died from it.  Perhaps more alarming is the fact that infections have increased by 80% in the past two weeks.  (2020)

Clearly everyone should be wearing masks.  So why aren't they?

We know that all decisions are emotional, so you can disregard the "rational" excuses that people are offering.  Instead we should consider what it means to wear a mask.  It means acknowledging the fact that a pandemic is raging across the globe killing people and destroying economies.

That's scary stuff. 

And putting on a mask means admitting that we have no control over this virus.  And that it might actually kill us or our loved ones.  Instead we chose denial - and skip the masks so we can pretend that we are safe. 

Sadly pretending won't help.  Wearing a mask will.  But people make bad decisions when they are under stress.

Research tells us that we need to fight fear with fear.  We need to show photos of the overrun hospitals, supply shortages and pictures of sick people.  And then maybe people will realize that it's even scarier not to wear a mask.

(2020, July 1) Coronavirus in the U.S.: Latest Map and Case Count.  nytimes.com.  retrieved July 1, 2020, from https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage