Assessing Public Willingness to Wear Face Masks during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Fresh Insights from the Theory of Planned Behavior

Muhammad Irfan (), Nadeem Akhtar, Munir Ahmad, Farrukh Shahzad, Rajvikram Madurai Elavarasan, Haitao Wu () and Chuxiao Yang
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Nadeem Akhtar: School of Urban Culture, South China Normal University, Nanhai Campus, Foshan 528225, China
Munir Ahmad: School of Economics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
Farrukh Shahzad: School of Economics and Management, Guangdong University of Petrochemical Technology, Maoming 525000, China
Rajvikram Madurai Elavarasan: Clean and Resilient Energy Systems (CARES) Laboratory, Texas A&M University, Galveston, TX 77553, USA
Chuxiao Yang: School of Management and Economics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 9, 1-22

Abstract: Face masks are considered an effective intervention in controlling the spread of airborne viruses, as evidenced by the 2009′s H1N1 swine flu and 2003′s severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreaks. However, research aiming to examine public willingness to wear (WTW) face masks in Pakistan are scarce. The current research aims to overcome this research void and contributes by expanding the theoretical mechanism of theory of planned behavior (TPB) to include three novel dimensions (risk perceptions of the pandemic, perceived benefits of face masks, and unavailability of face masks) to comprehensively analyze the factors that motivate people to, or inhibit people from, wearing face masks. The study is based on an inclusive questionnaire survey of a sample of 738 respondents in the provincial capitals of Pakistan, namely, Lahore, Peshawar, Karachi, Gilgit, and Quetta. Structural equation modeling (SEM) is used to analyze the proposed hypotheses. The results show that attitude, social norms, risk perceptions of the pandemic, and perceived benefits of face masks are the major influencing factors that positively affect public WTW face masks, whereas the cost of face masks and unavailability of face masks tend to have opposite effects. The results emphasize the need to enhance risk perceptions by publicizing the deadly effects of COVID-19 on the environment and society, ensure the availability of face masks at an affordable price, and make integrated and coherent efforts to highlight the benefits that face masks offer.

Keywords: willingness to wear; face masks; COVID-19; theory of planned behavior; risk perceptions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

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