Wearing face masks in times of COVID-19 is one of the essential keystones for effectively decreasing the rate of new infections and thus for mitigating the negative consequences for individuals as well as for society. Acceptance of wearing masks is still low in many countries, making it extremely difficult to keep the pandemic at bay. In an experimental study, participants (N = 88) had to assess how strange they felt when wearing a face mask while being exposed to displays of groups of varying numbers of mask wearers. Three different types of face masks were shown: simple homemade masks, FFP2 masks, and loop scarfs. The higher the frequency of people wearing masks in the displayed social group, the less strange the participants felt about themselves, an essential precondition for accepting wearing masks. This effect of a descriptive social norm was particularly effective when people saw others wearing less intrusive masks, here, simple homemade masks.

在 COVID-19 时期戴口罩是有效降低新感染率、从而减轻对个人和社会负面影响的重要基石之一。在许多国家，戴口罩的接受度仍然很低，这使得控制疫情变得极其困难。在一项实验研究中，参与者（ N = 88）必须评估他们在戴着口罩并暴露在不同数量的口罩佩戴者群体的展示中时的感觉有多奇怪。展示了三种不同类型的口罩：简单的自制口罩、FFP2 口罩和环形围巾。在展示的社交群体中，戴口罩的频率越高，参与者对自己的感觉就越不奇怪，这是接受戴口罩的必要前提。当人们看到其他人戴着不那么侵入性的口罩（这里是简单的自制口罩）时，描述性社会规范的这种效果尤其有效。