ArticleScientific reports2021
Prosocial behavior of wearing a mask during an epidemic: an evolutionary explanation.
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 42 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
42 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 91 citations in OpenAlex.
- Adherence to mask-wearing and its impact on the incidence and deaths of viral respiratory infectious diseases: a systematic review, meta-analysis and modelling study.BMJ global health · 2025Pooled it
- Trial
- MODELING AND SIMULATING CHOLERA TRANSMISSION DYNAMICS WITH EVOLUTIONARY GAME THEORY.Numerical algebra, control and optimization · 2026Article
- Feasibility of short-term hospital mask demand forecasting using a backpropagation neural network under data scarcity.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Phase Boundaries and Critical Transitions in Coupled Epidemic-Behavioral Systems.Bulletin of mathematical biology · 2025Article
- Revealing the complex dynamics of monkeypox epidemics in heterogeneous networks by the evolutionary game theory.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- When Omicron knocks at door: An inverted U-shape relationship between virus proximity and prosocial behavior.Fundamental research · 2025Article
- Risk management during times of health uncertainty in Spain: A qualitative analysis of ethical challenges.Risk analysis : an official publication of the Society for Risk Analysis · 2025Article
- Analyzing disease control through testing game approach embedded with treatment and vaccination strategies.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- "Early, rapid, aggressive": when strategic interactions between governments, opposition, and lobbies can hinder effective responses to epidemics.Frontiers in epidemiology · 2025Article
- Integrating behavioral dynamics and allee effect in eco-epidemiological model: A comprehensive approach to disease impact.PloS one · 2025Article
- Influence of waning immunity on vaccination decision-making: A multi-strain epidemic model with an evolutionary approach analyzing cost and efficacy.Infectious Disease Modelling · 2024Article
- An innovative fractional-order evolutionary game theoretical study of personal protection, quarantine, and isolation policies for combating epidemic diseases.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Assessing the instantaneous social dilemma on social distancing attitudes and vaccine behavior in disease control.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Modelling the dynamic vaccination game with evolutionary feedback: exploring pairwise interactions and vaccine strategies.Royal Society open science · 2024Article
- Behavioral game of quarantine during the monkeypox epidemic: Analysis of deterministic and fractional order approach.Heliyon · 2024Article
- Prosocial Behaviour and Antibiotic Resistance: Evidence from a Discrete Choice Experiment.The patient · 2024Article
- Understanding the relationship between stay-at-home measures and vaccine shortages: a conventional, heterogeneous, and fractional dynamic approach.Journal of health, population, and nutrition · 2024Article
- Heterogeneous risk tolerance, in-groups, and epidemic waves.Frontiers in applied mathematics and statistics · 2024Article
- Analyzing evolutionary game theory in epidemic management: A study on social distancing and mask-wearing strategies.PloS one · 2024Article
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 at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, with limited or no supplies of vaccines and treatments, people and policymakers seek easy to implement and cost-effective alternatives to combat the spread of infection during the pandemic. The practice of wearing a mask, which requires change in people's usual behavior, may reduce disease transmission by preventing the virus spread from infectious to susceptible individuals. Wearing a mask may result in a public good game structure, where an individual does not want to wear a mask but desires that others wear it. This study develops and analyzes a new intervention game model that combines the mathematical models of epidemiology with evolutionary game theory. This approach quantifies how people use mask-wearing and related protecting behaviors that directly benefit the wearer and bring some advantage to other people during an epidemic. At each time-step, a suspected susceptible individual decides whether to wear a facemask, or not, due to a social learning process that accounts for the risk of infection and mask cost. Numerical results reveal a diverse and rich social dilemma structure that is hidden behind this mask-wearing dilemma. Our results highlight the sociological dimension of mask-wearing policy.
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.