Professor Simon Willcock and his collaborators at the Bangor University School of Natural Sciences wanted to know: How does media messaging affect motivation and choice between disposable versus reusable facemasks? Findoutnow supplied 20,000 respondents from across the UK to complete the ten minute survey within ten days.

Facemasks are a crucial part of UK strategy to contain and mitigate transmission of COVID-19. While disposable facemasks present a convenient, low-cost solution, they carry greater associated environmental costs than reusable masks which are less likely to be discarded but require higher financial outlay. Although clearly central, the influence of media messaging – positive or negative – in determining people’s mask-wearing choices is unknown, despite the considerable medical and environmental implications. This project will explore the complex factors underpinning consumer choice of masks and the adoption or rejection of facemask wearing, including responsible disposal of masks, by using multi-disciplinary methods to evaluate constructive and destructive messaging around (a) mask-wearing and motivation, and (b) sustainable choices within the facemask wearing arena.

There are three components:

• Assessing the influence and effectiveness of media messaging around the wearing of facemasks to date.
• Examining the ways in which more effective media messaging can be developed to respond to rising rates of infection as well as potential long-term facemask use in the post-Covid era.
• Examining how the wearing of facemasks can be encouraged in an environmentally friendly and sustainable manner to prevent short, medium and long-term collateral environmental harm, in alignment with the UK’s obligations under international human rights and environmental laws.

The overarching aim of this twelve-month project is, then, to better understand current facemask wearing behaviour as influenced by the media to improve uptake and enhance the effectiveness of media campaigns for the future, specifically considering environmental issues.

“It is really exciting to be involved in a research project that can feed in directly to UK Government policy. But, to do this, we need to be very confident that our findings as reliable and representative of the situation across the UK. One way we can do this is to survey a large number of people to capture as many views as possible – Findoutnow is vital for this as it would be very difficult for us to quickly survey 20,000 people any other way. I would like to thank Findoutnow and everyone who completed to survey for their involvement in this exciting science.”

Professor Simon Willcock – Bangor University, School of Natural Sciences

Photo by Mark König on Unsplash