ArticleScientific reports2021
Risk compensation and face mask mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Article in Scientific reports, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 40 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
40 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Does COVID-19 vaccination affect risk perception and adherence to preventive behaviors? A systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in public health · 2025Pooled it
- Effect of face-covering use on adherence to other COVID-19 protective behaviours: A systematic review.PloS one · 2024Pooled it
- Impact of community masking on COVID-19: A cluster-randomized trial in Bangladesh.Science (New York, N.Y.) · 2022Trial
- Trial
- Compensate at your own risk: heterogeneity in compliance with preventive behaviors through the lens of economic and social preferences.International journal of health economics and management · 2026Article
- Association of SARS-CoV-2 Serology Test Result and COVID-19 Vaccination in Adults: A Multisite Cohort Study.AJPM focus · 2025Article
- Protocol: a systematic review+ (SR+) to combine associative and mechanistic evidence on the efficacy of face masks in reducing transmission of respiratory diseases.Systematic reviews · 2025Article
- Knowledge, attitudes and practices related to SARS-CoV-2 prevention in Kenya.Journal of public health in Africa · 2025Article
- Article
- Age and urban-rural disparities in cutaneous melanoma mortality rates in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic.Pigment cell & melanoma research · 2024Article
- Effect of distributing locally produced cloth facemasks on COVID-19-like illness and all-cause mortality-a cluster-randomised controlled trial in urban Guinea-Bissau.PLOS global public health · 2024Article
- People interact closer when a face mask is worn but risk compensation is at best partial.European journal of public health · 2023Article
- A plausible hypothesis for the higher Covid-19 mortality in Brazil.African health sciences · 2023Article
- The impact of threshold decision mechanisms of collective behavior on disease spread.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- Social contact patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic in 21 European countries - evidence from a two-year study.BMC infectious diseases · 2023Article
- Impacts of COVID-19-Related Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions on Mobility and Accidents in Bangladesh.Transportation research record · 2023Article
- Adaptation and Utilization of a Postmarket Evaluation Model for Digital Contact Tracing Mobile Health Tools in the United States: Observational Cross-sectional Study.JMIR public health and surveillance · 2023Observational
- Article
- Health Behaviours among Travellers Regarding Risk Compensation Following COVID-19 Vaccination in Taizhou, China.The Canadian journal of infectious diseases & medical microbiology = Journal canadien des maladies infectieuses et de la microbiologie medicale · 2023Article
- Impact of Post-Covid-19 on driver behaviour: A perspective towards pandemic-sustained transportation.Journal of transport & health · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Face masks are an important component in controlling COVID-19, and policy orders to wear masks are common. However, behavioral responses are seldom additive, and exchanging one protective behavior for another could undermine the COVID-19 policy response. We use SafeGraph smart device location data and variation in the date that US states and counties issued face mask mandates as a set of natural experiments to investigate risk compensation behavior. We compare time at home and the number of visits to public locations before and after face mask orders conditional on multiple statistical controls. We find that face mask orders lead to risk compensation behavior. Americans subject to the mask orders spend 11-24 fewer minutes at home on average and increase visits to some commercial locations-most notably restaurants, which are a high-risk location. It is unclear if this would lead to a net increase or decrease in transmission. However, it is clear that mask orders would be an important part of an economic recovery if people otherwise overestimate the risk of visiting public places.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.