Finally Back to Campus? Motivations for Facemask Adoption in the Higher Education Sector
Journal
Business Recovery in Emerging Markets
Palgrave Studies in Democracy, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship for Growth
ISSN
2662-3641
2662-365X
Date Issued
2022
Author(s)
Type
Resource Types::text::book::book part
DOI
URL
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic caused an unprecedented crisis in the higher education sector through campuses closing worldwide. To contain the disease, authorities required their citizens to wear facemasks in public spaces. As universities return to in-person instruction, they will probably require all students to wear facemasks while on-campus. This study examined antecedents of voluntary adoption of facemasks through a survey of students enrolled in Mexico City universities in the Fall of 2020. It was hypothesized that Social Value Orientation (SVO) and Trust would be positively related to facemask adoption. Findings revealed that among students, wearing a facemask reflects distinct conducts depending on the social context. Regression results show that SVO and Trust significantly predict facemask use but only in some contexts, giving partial support to hypotheses. A key implication is that public health communications should avoid general messages recommending facemasks, and craft more nuanced appeals targeting specific social contexts. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.