Rapid proliferation led the World Health Organization to declare the outbreak a public health emergency within weeks and proclaim it a global pandemic in March 2020. The novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) that causes COVID-19 was identified in December 2019, with the first confirmed human-to-human transmission occurring in January 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic continues to throttle the global economy. These results offer guidance to policy makers and practitioners interested in understanding the factors that influence viral risk mitigation strategies. We also explore experiential effects of COVID-19, and find that people (especially supporters of the President) are more likely to support wearing a mask if they know someone who has tested positive for COVID-19. We find that exposure to presidential messages can increase the stated likelihood of wearing a mask-particularly among the President’s supporters. In the third video, the President added that he will not personally wear a mask. In the second, the President additionally emphasized that wearing a mask is optional.

In the first video, the President simply recited the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines. We report the results from a survey experiment in which subjects were exposed to one of three video messages from President Trump, and then indicated their preference for wearing a mask. Designing effective nudges for widespread adoption is important when federal mandates are politically or legally infeasible. Face coverings have been shown to slow the spread of COVID-19, yet their use is not universal and remains controversial in the United States.

Masked by Cherry D. Weber