Thread by @ClaireAdida

📢New Paper📢
Mask-wearing in times of COVID has become politicized in the US. Can we leverage the salience of social ID to increase compliance w/ mitigation measures?

@christinakcc, @Lfalab, Isa Gotti, @shahbano_ijaz, @Gregoire_Philli, @mikeseese and I find that we can. (1/7)

Our paper, "Taking the Cloth: social norms and elite cues increase support for masks among white Evangelical Americans" tests two strategies for increasing support for wearing face masks in public among one of the least compliant groups: white Evangelical Americans. (2/7)

The first is a cue from an ingroup elite - Reverend Franklin Graham - expressing support for mask-wearing in public.

The second is info about how many other white Evangelicals have worn masks in public - revealing that there has been more compliance than typically thought. (3/7)

Both strategies (Endorsement and Norms) increase expressed support for mask wearing, though the second, the one about other white Evangelicals wearing masks, generates more wide-ranging effects. (4/7)

Interestingly, our endorsement info wasn't really new to most of our respondents; but our peer norm info was. This is consistent with important work by @betsylevyp showing that changing an individual's perception about what is normative in their community can be powerful. (5/7)

Our paper joins a growing literature (e.g., @ThatSaraGoodman, @TomPepinsky, @sgadarian, @austinlwright, @MerollaJenn) that helps us make sense of the social, political, & behavioral response to the COVID19 pandemic and its mitigation measures. (6/7)

It's a project I started with my graduate students as the pandemic unfolded. They're fantastic, and some of them are on the market this year.

Open-access @JEPS_ed paper is here: cambridge.org/core/journals/…

#AcademicTwitter #PolisciTwitter

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