Why Men Are Less Likely to Wear Face Masks

Studies show that men are more reluctant to don a face mask than women, a startling fact since men are more likely to die from COVID-19. The World Health Organization and many health officials say that wearing a mask should be a top priority in protecting yourself and others as well as reducing the spread of the virus, so why do men balk at this advice?

According to BBC News, a recent analysis on male behavior by researchers at Middlesex University and the Mathematical Science Research Institute in Berkeley, found that men weren’t only less inclined to wear masks but they considered them “shameful, not cool and a sign of weakness.”

The researchers said that this response was more prevalent in countries where the wearing of face coverings was not mandated. On the other hand, women were twice as likely to say they’d wear masks outside their homes.

“Men are less inclined to wear a face covering, and one of the main reasons is that they are more likely to believe that they will be relatively unaffected by the disease,” said the scientists, according to BBC News, adding that the irony of this logic is that the coronavirus impacts males more seriously.

Other studies showed that men are also less likely to practice good hygiene during the pandemic. Only 52% said they wash their hands regularly compared to 62% of women. These differences didn’t surprise Christina Gravert, assistant professor at the University of Copenhagen. She told BBC News that men and women approach risk differently, citing simple data that when walking trails were made one-way during the pandemic, more men than women went the wrong way.

According to BBC News, a full 90% of men won the infamous Darwin Award between the years 1995 and 2014. The award “honors” those who suffered the most absurd and avoidable deaths.

“The idea that the mask is inconvenient comes from how men have been socialized to believe that the world conforms to their needs, not the other way around,” said Dr. Davarian Baldwin, a leading historian and professor at Trinity College, in Hartford, Conn. He told Fatherly that men view masks as symbols of worry and concern so they choose not to succumb to such weakness.

Baldwin suggests catering to men’s protective nature to encourage them to wear face masks and ask them directly, “What happens if you get sick or make someone else get sick?”

The answer is straightforward, says Baldwin. “You are doing damage to everything you think you are protecting,” he told Fatherly.