Why men are less likely to wear masks

[Kaiserin]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-53446827

I just saw this.
I'm not sure how I feel about this (the facts being reported, and the way these facts are being reported)

Thoughts?

It v much chimes with my own personal and professional experience.

What is your issue with HOW it is reported?

Rulez don't apply to the menz!

The thing that caught my eye is:
"If we take it seriously that men on average are less altruistic and more selfish, then communication should focus less on protecting others and more on protecting oneself," says Dr Gravert.

I believe the reported facts are correct (it's well known in research circles), I am however surprised to see them expressed so bluntly in mainstream media, and I wonder if it will have the intended effect (or in fact, what the intended effect is. If it's guilt-shaming, it may backfire?)

OP, when you say 'the way it's reported', do you mean in respect of the implication throughout the article that masks are primarily worn to protect the wearer?

I found that odd too.

I expected the research to focus on men and women having different values around altruism, but instead the questions are around men being more confident and not wanting to admit weakness - what's that got to do with the science around masks, where it's predominantly others who are protected from your droplets if you wear a mask?

Seems like a dangerous amount of misinformation on Covid from the BBC, when the main point of masks is to protect other people.

I went to ikea yesterday. Mostly no mask wearing, but a bit. No man had the mask on properly, all noses were out, even those who were with partners who were using them properly.

Oh come on we all know this is true - men don't like being told what to do, think they know better than anyone else, don't like showing weakness, don't like walking around obviously showing that they are following a rule dictated by someone else, and don't tend to think that deeply of others.

Obviously I am not saying this applies to all men, before anyone starts, and we have all seen the videos of the 'Karens' who are refusing to wear a mask. But when you think about men as a class compared to women as a class, it's no wonder that men are less likely to wear a mask than women who as a class are socialised to be kind, compliant, thinking of others etc etc.

We all know this, we have all seen it in our lives.

The men in my family are mask wearing and doing it properly. It's such a shame so many women on mn seem to have had a shit time round men and love a pile when it comes to slagging them.

Funny that I saw more men in masks than women before becoming mandatory. Even now it’s compulsory it’s more women I see not complying.🤷🏻‍♀️ My husband had one long before I did. Before anyone comments - I’ve worn it long before it was compulsory.

It’s about equal where I live. Most elderly men and women have been wearing them for months.

I think it will backfire, OP - the whole article (not the underlying research) is written from a standpoint of masks being for the wearer's benefit, which is inevitably going to suggest to readers that it's their decision to make and that the consequences of that decision will be theirs to live with.

Which isn't the point of mask-wearing at all.

The men in my family are mask wearing and doing it properly. It's such a shame so many women on mn seem to have had a shit time round men and love a pile when it comes to slagging them.

The fact that the men in your family are wearing a mask is really quite irrelevant in a discussion about whether men, as a group, are more or less likely to wear a mask than women.

Without being drawn into a heated "men VS women" debate (there's probably other relevant axis, by the way: age, education, socioeconomic status, possibly even religion...), what is the best way to communicate unpopular public health and safety messages to very self-focused, shit-only-happens-to-others individuals?

I dislike the idea of bending facts to make the "self gain" aspect more obvious, when it is far from obvious (in the case of a pandemic, this "self gain" only fully materialises once almost everyone complies)

... I'd love to think you can educate everyone, but past experience proves that often, making things mandatory and issuing fines really is the only way (think things like seat belts, smoking in enclosed public spaces, mobile phones while driving, etc. Gently asking never worked for these)

The men in my family are mask wearing and doing it properly. It's such a shame so many women on mn seem to have had a shit time round men and love a pile when it comes to slagging them.

My husband is a decent man and wears his face mask properly and whenever he's in an enclosed space, but I still recognise the generalisations that the article made. From looking around more women than men are wearing masks and a lifetime tells me that some men do behave just as they said they do.

I get public transport and it's been older men who haven't been wearing them. It's men who I've seen not respecting SD and having kick offs at having to queue. There's a lot less men about now, where I shop and travel.

According to surveys, it's men that are less likely to wash their hands properly. In general they are more complacent about health and infections. I'm surprised at the amount of younger men who have always worn masks. I'd like to think that they really love their Nans.

Loads of teens wear masks where I live, boys and girls, think it’s a novelty that will soon wear off.

@ThatsHowWeRowl

Oh come on we all know this is true - men don't like being told what to do, think they know better than anyone else, don't like showing weakness, don't like walking around obviously showing that they are following a rule dictated by someone else, and don't tend to think that deeply of others.

Obviously I am not saying this applies to all men, before anyone starts, and we have all seen the videos of the 'Karens' who are refusing to wear a mask. But when you think about men as a class compared to women as a class, it's no wonder that men are less likely to wear a mask than women who as a class are socialised to be kind, compliant, thinking of others etc etc.

We all know this, we have all seen it in our lives.

Yes you are saying it applies to all men. You can't make one statement and then make a contradictory statement and expect anyone to swallow it

Aren't men less likely to do to the doctor if they get sick (in general) as well.

Quite interesting www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/92/8/13-132795/en/

I can only go by my own experience which is my DH and DS who are wearing face coverings, DS on trains when he's been on them and DH in shops. We've been wearing them throughout lockdown when we remember.

we have all seen the videos of the 'Karens' hmm who are refusing to wear a mask have we? And will people please stop using "Karen" as an insult? It's not my name but I am squarely within the right age bracket and find it massively offensive.

Also men are less affected by the role of lockdown we have had, so are less determined to avoid another. The women left holding the babies in the face of no childcare are going to be keener to avoid another.

If the statistics show that more women are wearing mask than men, and that research is reliable, then it just is what it is. No amount of hurt feelings or your dh wearing a mask has any bearing on the matter.

I'm a woman and I don't want to wear a mask. Also will people stop calling women Karen's fgs.

In all of the supermarkets I've been to, most people, men and women, old and young aren't wearing masks.

This tells me that they don't want to, because if they wanted to they already would be.

I suppose they're all thick and selfish.

Because they're narcissists who think they're special.

It's more that men are quite rightly less afraid that they'll be publicly (and possibly aggressively) confronted about it in public.

Women are far more likely to be aggressively confronted and even filmed and shamed online.

In other words, men are physically safer when they do whatever the fuck they want.

Reads like the latest in a long line of anti-man articles on the BBC. Many mumsnet posters will feel in perfect agreement with it.

The fact is that men are less agreeable and higher risk takers than women as a group (and I for one don't like bundling an entire demographic into a bucket, unlike the identity politicians at the BBC), and so on that simple basis it's hardly surprising they reject masks more often.