Men Less Likely to Wear Face Masks because They’re ‘Not Cool’

The coronavirus isn't going away anytime soon. As we begin to adjust to this new normal, there are some things that are just plain necessary to protect ourselves and others. At this point there is hardly anywhere you can go where you don't have to wear a mask. Restaurants and stores are now forbidding people from entering unless they are wearing a facial covering of some sort. However, a new study suggest that men are more likely to leave their masks at home anyway.

According to Researchers from Middlesex University London in the UK and the Mathematical Science Research Institute in Berkeley, Calif, men are less likely than women to wear face coverings, especially in places around the country that don't enforce them. They say that mandating face coverings has much more of an effect on men than women.  According to NY Post, the reason men don't like wearing masks is because of the way it makes them feel about themselves.

“Men more than women agree that wearing a face covering is shameful, not cool, a sign of weakness and a stigma; and these gender differences also mediate gender differences intentions to wear a face covering,” the authors of this study wrote.

The crazy things is that this stigma has been around for a while now, not just during the covid-19 pandemic. According to NY Post, women were reportedly more likely to wear facial coverings during the SARS outbreak in Hong Kong and also the H1N1 outbreak.

“With regard to gender, it has been postulated that women are generally less willing to take risks and are thus more compliant with preventive behavior than their male counterparts,” the authors wrote.