@article{seres_balleyer_cerutti_danilov_friedrichsen_liu_süer_2021, 
  title={Face masks increase compliance with physical distancing recommendations during the COVID-19 pandemic}, 
  DOI={10.1007/s40881-021-00108-6}, 
  abstractNote={<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Governments across the world have implemented restrictive policies to slow the spread of COVID-19. Recommended face mask use has been a controversially discussed policy, among others, due to potential adverse effects on physical distancing. Using a randomized field experiment (<jats:italic>N</jats:italic> = 300), we show that individuals kept a significantly larger distance from someone wearing a face mask than from an unmasked person during the early days of the pandemic. According to an additional survey experiment (<jats:italic>N</jats:italic> = 456) conducted at the time, masked individuals were not perceived as being more infectious than unmasked ones, but they were believed to prefer more distancing. This result suggests that wearing a mask served as a social signal that led others to increase the distance they kept. Our findings provide evidence against the claim that mask use creates a false sense of security that would negatively affect physical distancing. Furthermore, our results suggest that behavior has informational content that may be affected by policies.</jats:p>}, 
  publisher={Springer Science and Business Media LLC}, 
  author={Seres, Gyula and Balleyer, Anna Helen and Cerutti, Nicola and Danilov, Anastasia and Friedrichsen, Jana and Liu, Yiming and Süer, Müge}, 
  year={2021}, 
  month={Nov}
  }