Thread by @garwboy

Meant to address this over a week ago but, ironically, I've had Covid, so not been up to it.

But with cases rising alarmingly and there being a decent chance they'll be reintroduced, here are some psychological explanations for resistance to #facemasks

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https://twitter.com/markmywordsltd/status/1542901443098808320

The most obvious and fundamental mechanism behind objection to wearing #Facemasks is simple 'reactance'

Basically, the human brain likes autonomy, and instinctively objects, reacts, to anything that reduces it

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P….

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In many cases, the context doesn't matter as much as the innate resistance to having your autonomy reduced. In this case, the fact that it's the government (or whoever) telling people they MUST wear a mask, rather than requesting it, means they resist doing so.

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The fact that the rationale behind mandatory mask wearing is sound (i.e. there's a lot of #Covid around and we need to reduce the spread and keep people safe) is deemed, by some, to be less important than the 'mandatory' bit, which they object to.

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Tied into the reactance is human sensitivity to status. We want to be looked up to, we don't like being looked down on. It's another fundamental aspect of how we work.

sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

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So, when we're made to wear a mask, we are acknowledging that other people matter as much/more than us, and that there are people who have authority over us, and we humans tend not to like that.

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For most people they can put up with it just fine, but some may be too sensitive to their status to just accept #FaceMasks

This will be particularly salient in Western, capitalist nations, where individualism and status are emphasised.

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Maybe that's why certain people get so angry about having to wear #Facemasks in shops, fast food franchises etc. For them, these are places where they enjoy superior social status as the almighty customer. Employees enforcing mask rules upends that entirely, and they hat it

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They *hate* it, they don't *hat* it. That'd be daft

Another potential factor in resistance to #Facemasks is an instinctive wariness of body autonomy. In many cases, people experience discomfort when something threatens their physical integrity/space.

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There's a class of phobias (needles, blood, vomiting etc.) where people react badly to things that threaten their physical integrity. It makes us instinctively uncomfortable. It's not a huge leap to assume that masks, covering our breathing holes, would trigger this a bit

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The fact that masks *don't* obscure breathing in any noticeable way is actually immaterial for many. Just like how needles don't actually harm you and vomiting is often a *good* thing as it's a body expelling toxins etc. Phobias are irrational, illogical, by definition

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Another potential factor in resistance to #Facemasks; we humans evolved over millions of years to glean copious information from other people's faces, we have dedicated brain regions for it

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusiform_…

Masks obstruct faces, and our brains may object to that

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Thwarting our brain's expectations as to what a face conveys is may be one of the reasons that people are scared of clowns; the painted on smile etc. scrambles our perception of the face

Masks could do that a bit too, meaning we object to them

theguardian.com/science/brain-…

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And then there's the cultural associations. Pre-pandemic, the sort of people you saw wearing lower-face covering masks in the media were

Surgeons, and related medical/biohazard people
Muggers, robbers
Ninjas/assassins

All of which convey 'something bad has/will happen'

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If that's your main cultural reference for facemasks, and suddenly you're surrounded by them, you wouldn't necessarily 'like' them. Enough to put you off wearing them? Maybe. It could trigger a low-level dislike which manifests as such.

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And one final reason why people would resist #Facemasks?

Good old fashioned denial, the psychological self-defence mechanism when bad stuff happens that you really don't want to accept as reality.

harleytherapy.co.uk/counselling/de…

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Because that's the thing; you may be upset/scared/resistant to the idea of #Covid. Wearing a face mask may protect you against it, but it also means accepting that Covid is a tangible reality, because you've altered your behaviour to recognise it.

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For some, it may be more comforting, even subconsciously, to deny Covid is real, or a big deal, than to actively do something to protect yourself (and others) from it. But trying to do both leads to a dissonance, which is also uncomfortable. So, masks are resisted

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For the record, all I've described are possible factors in people resisting/objecting to #Facemasks.

They're not *excuses*. One of the best things about our brains is that they allow us to overrule our base instincts and make logical decisions and behave cooperatively

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The fact that people's baser, instinctive drives and reactions are so regularly validated and reinforced by credible-seeming ideologically-driven media types and platforms is the real, bigger problem if you ask me. But that's a whole other discussion.

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Thanks for reading this far.

As ever, if you've liked my insight here, please consider one of my books, they all have stuff like this in them

amazon.co.uk/Dean-Burnett/e…

Or check out my new podcast, @whyexistPod. I promise it's funny and informative.

https://twitter.com/WhyExistPod/status/1546796503628484609

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