Scientists Discover Why Some People Wore Masks During COVID-19 While Others Did Not

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Why do some people voluntarily follow new rules while others ignore them? Researchers at HSE University have found that the answer lies not so much in people's willingness to cooperate, as previously believed, but in their ability to empathise with others. Empathy proved to be the strongest predictor of whether people chose to wear face masks voluntarily during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings have been published in Frontiers.

During the pandemic, millions of people had to adapt to new rules: wearing face masks, maintaining physical distance, and limiting social contact. Some followed these recommendations conscientiously without reminders, while others frequently ignored them. For many years, researchers have sought to understand why people respond differently to the same requirements and which psychological traits influence such behaviour.

For a long time, scientists assumed that compliance with social norms was closely linked to a person's general willingness to cooperate. If someone is prepared to sacrifice personal benefit for the common good, they are also likely to be more responsible in following public rules. To test this hypothesis, researchers from the HSE Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience, together with colleagues from the University of Zurich, examined behaviour during the COVID-19 pandemic, when wearing face masks became one of the most widespread new social norms.

To determine whether this relationship was universal or depended on cultural context, the researchers included participants from two countries with different social traditions. The study involved 135 volunteers from Russia and Switzerland. After excluding incomplete responses and statistical outliers, the final analysis was based on data from 122 participants. The choice of countries made it possible to compare societies with contrasting cultural traditions: people in Russia tend to place greater emphasis on collectivism and interpersonal relationships, whereas Switzerland is generally regarded as a more individualistic society.

During the experiment, participants first took part in a specially designed economic game in which they had to make decisions either in their own interest or for the benefit of the group. Such experiments are widely used to assess an individual's propensity for cooperation. The volunteers then answered questions about their attitudes towards mask-wearing during the pandemic and completed psychological assessments measuring empathy and personality traits, including the so-called Dark Triad of narcissism, machiavellianism, and psychopathy.

The findings turned out to be unexpected. A person's willingness to cooperate with others, as measured through the economic game, had almost no effect on whether they complied with mask-wearing requirements and other public health recommendations. In other words, a participant could readily cooperate in an experimental setting, yet this did not necessarily mean they would behave more responsibly in real life by following measures designed to protect against COVID-19.

Personal characteristics proved to be far more important. The strongest predictor of whether a person would comply with new public rules was empathy—the ability to understand and share the feelings of others and to care about their well-being. The more strongly this trait was expressed, the more likely participants were to report wearing face masks and following other preventive measures.

Oksana Zinchenko

‘We expected willingness to cooperate to be the main factor behind compliance with the new rules, but the results showed the opposite. What mattered much more was a person's capacity for empathy. When people think not only about themselves but also about the well-being of those around them, they are more willing to follow rules that protect society,’ said Oksana Zinchenko, Senior Research Fellow at the HSE Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience and one of the study's authors.

This pattern remained consistent regardless of participants' age, level of education, health status, the presence of chronic conditions, or other personal characteristics. In other words, empathy—not socio-demographic factors—was the strongest predictor of people's willingness to comply with the new rules.

The study also revealed interesting cultural differences. On average, Russian participants contributed more resources to the common fund in the economic game than their Swiss counterparts, demonstrating more generous cooperative behaviour. However, this did not translate into higher compliance with public health measures in everyday life. Overall, the frequency of mask-wearing was broadly similar in the two countries.

The reasons behind this behaviour, however, differed. Participants from Switzerland were more likely to report that they would comply with the rules if required to do so by the authorities, and they also expressed greater trust in information about COVID-19. Russian participants, by contrast, showed stronger emotional engagement with the pandemic.

The findings may help improve public communication during future epidemics and other emergency situations. According to the authors, people are more effectively motivated by explaining how following public health measures helps protect others—especially those who are most vulnerable—than by relying on prohibitions or the threat of punishment. In the researchers' view, concern for other people is more likely to encourage voluntary compliance with public rules.

The study was conducted with support from HSE University’s Basic Research Programme.