STEVE GOLDSTEIN: Wearing masks has been politicized almost from the beginning of the pandemic. For a while it was presumed that if you didn't wear a mask, you were probably a supporter of President Trump. And it seemed that anecdotally, more women were wearing masks than men. As a response to that [in late July], an elaborate campaign was introduced featuring eight concepts by a number of the state's top creative firms in the hope of getting more residents to Mask Up Arizona. With me to talk about the push for masks and how to get more men to identify masks with masculinity is Bradley Adame, associate professor at ASU's School of Human Communication. Professor, what kind of connection, if any, do you see between men seeing themselves as weaker or seen by others that way and not wearing masks?
BRADLEY ADAME: Yeah, I think there is something to that argument. I was doing a little bit of research on this, and I found a study that was published in a journal within the last year or so, I think, that was looking at how men are less likely to do things like recycle or bring reusable grocery bags to the grocery store because they perceive it as being effeminate and they're worried about their sexuality being questioned if they care for the environment. And so I think there's a connection here where men feel like they're less likely to be affected by the virus. They think that flouting the, the safety precautions is an artifact of masculinity. And so it seems to me to make sense that, that, that that we're witnessing this behavior and that this is the cause for it.
GOLDSTEIN: What is the argument that, that a male in that position would make then to say, "Well, I don't want to wear a mask because I don't want to look weak," but what if it might hurt a loved one?
ADAME: That's a great question. And I'm, you know, I've been struggling trying to understand how people justify those decisions. And so it may be somebody who is, you know, doesn't, doesn't have close contact with vulnerable family members or, you know, so maybe it's a young male who doesn't have a family yet or isn't worried about his friends necessarily. I'm really at a loss for that one as to how, especially if you had kids or a vulnerable family member or, you know, how you could justify not wearing a mask in order to bolster your masculinity.
GOLDSTEIN: Well, as one way to maybe bolster the idea of more people wearing masks, the governor recently announced there'd be a social media campaign, in part encouraging men to wear masks. And it's called " Tougher Than COVID." What do you think about something like that, to, to — here's this idea of giving men a better reason or maybe reasons they hadn't quite considered it quite the same way. Is it important for the communication to be that direct, maybe in this situation?
ADAME: I think, let me just say that I think that anything that gets people to, to wear a mask is going to be a good thing. We know that, we know that they're effective, and we know they're a valuable tool in fighting this pandemic. So, you know, if, if this works, then I say go for it and I'm happy to support it. I think that one of the larger things we're dealing with is that, you know, Americans tend to be really individualistic. We don't like to be told what to do. And so having this campaign, that kind of activates an identity and kind of gets around that, that little bit of react — and so we might be experiencing is, it could be effective. I think if the campaign is going to be effective, I think that they need to spend a lot more money getting it, making it more visible and getting it out there on not only social media, but also on television. And I think the other thing they could probably do to make it even more effective is to get some prominent male Arizonans to buy into it and to, to model the mask-wearing behavior. So somebody like Larry Fitzgerald or Kurt Warner, somebody who's a well-known, masculine Arizonan, to put on a mask and repeat that message and again, lead by example, right? And so you have someone who is famous, someone who is a football player or some other male role model who is demonstrating this behavior and telling other men that, that it's, that this is an effective way to fight the virus.
GOLDSTEIN: Well, I know it's a different spelling, but what about just putting the "mask" in masculinity? How about just trying that?
ADAME: That's, that's great. The biggest thing right now is that we probably, we don't know if it's effective because we haven't tested it yet. And so I think that at the beginning of this pandemic, we had an opportunity to scientifically test some of these messages that, then we could verify then if they worked, you know, if they were going to work, and we've really missed that opportunity. So right now, it seems like people are just kind of spit-balling and trying to figure out something that they think might work, and then and then just putting it out there and hoping that it does. And that's not, from a health messaging standpoint, that's just not an effective strategy. So if it works, that's awesome. And, you know, it would be a lucky break, in my professional opinion.
GOLDSTEIN: Do you think we're in a period of time where we have to have different sorts of marketing to men, first of all, and then to men who might be less likely to want to wear a mask? Are we in a situation where there needs to be more of trying to figure out how to communicate to men right now? Because this messy situation seems to illustrate there is definitely a disconnect there.
ADAME: I think so, and, you know, we see this with product advertising that, you know, people who have things to sell will market them to segmented, segmented audiences. And they do so very effectively. And I don't think there's a reason why we shouldn't be doing that right now, especially if it, if, you know, if someone is identified that, that men are less likely to wear masks then, then clearly we should be marketing that to them, directly to them, and trying to change their, you know, their opinions, their perceptions and their behavior. So I don't see a problem with that specifically. I think, again, the thing that we're lacking here is, is I haven't seen any evidence that this has been scientifically investigated or tested to see if this phenomena is actually happening or if the messages are actually going to work.
GOLDSTEIN: Do you think there's any reason to think that maybe, maybe some men who, if a message had been communicated to them in March and they would have waved it — "There's no way I'm wearing a mask, I don't even care about social distancing." But now that we're so many months down the road, does sometimes even time cure something like this? The idea that now we're still seeing there are so many cases and in place like Arizona, which has still been quite a hotspot, could that be a convincer for some people who maybe a few months ago would have said, "Yeah, I'm masculine, I don't need this," but now, "Huh. All right. It's still around. Maybe I need to do something different."
ADAME: It could be. And I think that the overwhelming evidence suggests that this this thing has gotten worse over time, not better like we expected. And so there could be some people who are watching the evidence mount up or people who've had a, who, who over the course of time have had a personal experience. So, you know, there are many people who are starting to say, like, "Wow, I know someone who has this now and it's a bigger deal than I thought it was." So that change does happen over time. But I think we, part of what we're lacking in this, in, in the pandemic in general, especially from a messaging standpoint, is, is coherent leadership and consistent messaging. So if we had started out from the beginning with, with messages from the federal government saying, "Hey, wear a mask, social distance, do these types of things because they're effective." And if we had people that we trusted who were leading by example, then I think we'd be in a very different place right now, and we may not need this particular campaign to help solve this problem that we're experiencing in, in August of 2020.
GOLDSTEIN: Bradley Adame is an associate professor in ASU's Downs School of Human Communication.
