Prosocial behavior of wearing a mask during an epidemic: an evolutionary explanation

Sci Rep. 2021 Jun 16;11(1):12621. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-92094-2.

Abstract

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, with limited or no supplies of vaccines and treatments, people and policymakers seek easy to implement and cost-effective alternatives to combat the spread of infection during the pandemic. The practice of wearing a mask, which requires change in people's usual behavior, may reduce disease transmission by preventing the virus spread from infectious to susceptible individuals. Wearing a mask may result in a public good game structure, where an individual does not want to wear a mask but desires that others wear it. This study develops and analyzes a new intervention game model that combines the mathematical models of epidemiology with evolutionary game theory. This approach quantifies how people use mask-wearing and related protecting behaviors that directly benefit the wearer and bring some advantage to other people during an epidemic. At each time-step, a suspected susceptible individual decides whether to wear a facemask, or not, due to a social learning process that accounts for the risk of infection and mask cost. Numerical results reveal a diverse and rich social dilemma structure that is hidden behind this mask-wearing dilemma. Our results highlight the sociological dimension of mask-wearing policy.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Altruism*
  • COVID-19 / epidemiology*
  • COVID-19 / prevention & control*
  • COVID-19 / psychology
  • COVID-19 / virology
  • Computational Biology / methods*
  • Decision Making
  • Health Behavior*
  • Humans
  • Masks*
  • Models, Theoretical
  • Pandemics / prevention & control*
  • SARS-CoV-2