The politics of mask-wearing: Political preferences, reactance, and conflict aversion during COVID.

ABSTRACT: The current project examines how psychological reactance and conflict orientation relate to the highly politicized debate over mask-wearing in the U.S. during the COVID-19 pandemic. We explore how psychological reactance and conflict orientation are related to self-reported mask-wearing, and how these same predispositions are correlated with political beliefs. We then assess how favorability towards President Trump in the context of the 2020 Election was uniquely correlated with these traits and how Trump favorability both mediated and moderated the effects of conflict orientation and psychological reactance on individuals' likelihood of wearing masks. Results from a national survey of U.S. adults from Nov-Dec 2020 suggest that Trump favorability was positively associated with trait reacta

SUBMITTER: Young DG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8866197 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature