Mask On, Barriers Off: How Face Masks Enhance Social Connection and Responsibility in Different Cultural Context

Against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, wearing a mask not only serves a functional purpose in reducing the spread of the virus but also carries a symbolic value of social responsibility. There may be cultural differences in people’s understanding of such symbolic value. Results from three experimental studies have shown that wearing a medical mask increases other people’s willingness to have interpersonal contact with the mask-wearer. This is because people believe that the mask-wearer has a stronger sense of social responsibility (Experiment 1 and Experiment 2). However, such effect is moderated by cultural values of individualism/collectivism, and this moderating effect exhibits different patterns at the individual level and the group level of cultural values. Specifically, individuals with interdependent self-construal value the trait of social responsibility more in interpersonal communication than individuals with independent self-construal (Experiment 2), while groups with collectivistic values were further more able to recognize the social responsibility symbol value of wearing masks than those with individualistic values (Experiment 3). The research reveals how cultural values shape the mask’s symbolic value in group level and moderate people’s response in individual level.