ArticlePloS one2021
#MaskOn! #MaskOff! Digital polarization of mask-wearing in the United States during COVID-19.
Article in PloS one, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 28 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
The trial behind it
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
28 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Drivers of health polarization during the COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic review.Science advances · 2025Pooled it
- Societal values versus individual rights with respect to public health related practices during the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S.PloS one · 2026Article
- Regional and temporal patterns of partisan polarization during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States and Canada.PloS one · 2026Article
- Ubiquitous News Coverage and Its Varied Effects in Communicating Protective Behaviors to American Adults in Infectious Disease Outbreaks: Time-Series and Longitudinal Panel Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Article
- How out-group animosity can shape partisan divisions: A model of affective polarization.PNAS nexus · 2025Article
- Who Cares If Not Supposed To? Moral Foundations, Consideration of Immediate Consequences, and Mask-Wearing Intentions After Revocation of the Legal Obligation To Do So.Europe's journal of psychology · 2025Article
- Expectations regarding the effectiveness of mask-wearing and pandemic fatigue: The experience in Japan.PloS one · 2025Article
- Political polarization and health.Nature medicine · 2024Review
- Digital Mass Hysteria during Pandemic? A Study of Twitter Communication Patterns in the US during the Stages of COVID-19 Vaccination.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Americans misperceive the frequency and format of political debate.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Political party affiliation, social identity cues, and attitudes about protective mask-wearing during the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany.PloS one · 2024Article
- Adoption of a COVID-19 Contact Tracing App by Czech Youth: Cross-Cultural Replication Study.JMIR human factors · 2023Article
- Content and User Engagement of Health-Related Behavior Tweets Posted by Mass Media Outlets From Spain and the United States Early in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Observational Infodemiology Study.JMIR infodemiology · 2023Article
- A Data-Political Spectacle: How COVID-19 Became A Source of Societal Division in Denmark.Minerva · 2023Article
- Public interest in different types of masks and its relationship with pandemic and policy measures during the COVID-19 pandemic: a study using Google Trends data.Frontiers in public health · 2023Article
- Fostering mask-wearing with virality metrics and social media literacy: evidence from the U.S. and Korea.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- Trans and Gender Diverse People's Experience Wearing Face Masks During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Findings from Data Across 4 States in the USA.Sexuality research & social policy : journal of NSRC : SR & SP · 2022Article
- Leveraging 13 million responses to the U.S. COVID-19 Trends and Impact Survey to examine vaccine hesitancy, vaccination, and mask wearing, January 2021-February 2022.BMC public health · 2022Article
- Face masks inhibit facial cues for approachability and trustworthiness: an eyetracking study.Current psychology (New Brunswick, N.J.) · 2022Article
- #Nomask on Instagram: Exploring Visual Representations of the Antisocial Norm on Social Media.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has caused an unprecedented public health crisis worldwide. Its intense politicization constantly made headlines, especially regarding the use of face masks as a safety precaution. However, the extent to which public opinion is polarized on wearing masks has remained anecdotal and the verbal representation of this polarization has not been explored. This study examined the types, themes, temporal trends, and exchange patterns of hashtags about mask wearing posted from March 1 to August 1, 2020 by Twitter users based in the United States. On the one hand, we found a stark rhetorical polarization in terms of semantic antagonism between pro- and anti-mask hashtags, exponential frequency increases of both types of hashtags during the period under study, in parallel to growing COVID-19 case counts, state mask mandates, and media coverage. On the other hand, the results showed an asymmetric participatory polarization in terms of a predominance of pro-mask hashtags along with an "echo chamber" effect in the dominant pro-mask group, which ignored the subversive rhetoric of the anti-mask minority. Notwithstanding the limitations of the research, this study provides a nuanced account of the digital polarization of public opinion on mask wearing. It draws attention to political polarization both as a rhetorical phenomenon and as a participatory process.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.