WASHINGTON – Despite high-profile incidents of Americans refusing to wear face masks, an overwhelming majority of Americans say they have worn a face covering due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new survey.
More than four out of five Americans — 84% — said they have worn a mask in public in an effort to limit the spread of coronavirus, according to a survey from the Democracy Fund + UCLA Nationscape Project.
And while reopening economies and wearing a mask have at times become partisan talking points, the vast majority of Democrats and Republicans said they have worn a mask in public.
The Democracy Fund + UCLA Nationscape Project is a large-scale study of the American electorate. Throughout the 2020 election cycle, the researchers aim to conduct 500,000 interviews about policies and the presidential candidates. This survey was conducted between May 7 to 14, with 4,576 Americans surveyed. There is a margin of error of plus or minus 2.6 percentage points.
Eighty-nine percent of Democrats and 81% of Republicans say they have worn a mask in public, according to the survey. There is a small disparity among age groups, with younger people having been slightly less likely to have worn a mask in public. Roughly three out of four (78%) Americans ages 18 to 29 say they’ve worn a face mask in public, while 90% of Americans 65 and above say they have.
Robert Griffin, research director for the Democracy Fund Voter Study Group, said that although there’s a narrative that there’s “some sort of cultural war” about wearing masks, the data does not show that.
“The idea that there is a sizable portion of the population who’s somehow violently opposed to this behavior that public health officials are advising just doesn’t seem to line up,” he said.
Over the past several weeks, there have been several reports and viral videos of people refusing to wear face masks in public areas, such as stores and restaurants.
Earlier this month, security guard Calvin Munerlyn was fatally shot after turning away a customer for trying to enter a Family Dollar in Michigan without a mask. A woman in Alabama was taken down by a police officer after an altercation with a Walmart employee who asked her to wear a mask in the store. Most recently, a video of a verbal altercation between a Costco customer and employee in Colorado went viral after the customer was asked to leave the store because he was not wearing a mask.
President Donald Trump has also declined to wear a mask in public. The Centers for Disease Control recommends “wearing cloth face coverings in public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain (e.g., grocery stores and pharmacies) especially in areas of significant community-based transmission.”
Although there are some differences along demographic lines, the majorities of all groups have worn a mask in public, according to an analysis from Nationscape Insights, a project of Democracy Fund, UCLA, and USA TODAY.
But there is a gap among people who have worn masks when it comes to what activities they are willing to participate in if restrictions were lifted.
The biggest gap was between people who would and would not attend a professional sporting event. Among people who said they would attend a sporting event if restrictions were lifted, 75% said they had worn a mask in public.
But among those who said they would not attend a professional sporting event, 92% said they have worn a mask in public.
The next largest gap came between those who would go to a stadium concert and those who wouldn’t.
Of those who said they would go to a stadium concert, 76% said they’ve worn a face mask in public. But among those who say they would not go to a stadium concert, 91% said they’ve worn a face mask in public.
Griffin said there is a clear relationship where the people most likely to wear a mask “are also the folks who are going, ‘hey, I’m going to be more cautious about this even if things do reopen, and I’m not certain I’ll actually engage in them at all.’ “
