Mask up!

One phenomenon that may explain why certain people are opting to not wear a mask is because of what we refer to in psychology as the “ostrich effect,” a cognitive bias. This is when the brain rejects negative information (e.g., the severity of COVID-19) and pretends that such a situation does not exist. In other words, it’s a form of defense mechanism. By opting to not follow instructions, people who have this distorted belief is averting his/her own discomfort. 

I’m sure you’ve all heard these sentiments:

“Flu is deadlier” (Is this a competition as to what viral infection is more lethal?)

“I don’t know anyone who has this coronavirus” (Of course you do. The mere fact that there’s someone in your town, city, or country implies that you, in fact, know someone)

“The numbers aren’t real” (Yes, they’re not because it could be exponentially higher. Daily statistics are backlogged so you could imagine the inaccuracies and how insubstantial we are testing)

“I have a breathing problem” (If surgeons can wear one for up to 15 hours, I’m very certain you could handle it for 5 minutes when you pick up something in the store)

As you can see, certain people rationalize the situation through mockery - which is really unfortunate because we will have a really challenging time flattening the curve.