View or Download the Paper Open Access. As dramatically illustrated by the coronavirus COVID pandemic, nonpharmaceutical interventions can be crucial in the effort to contain the spread of infectious diseases. During the still ongoing COVID crisis, two of the most common interventions of this type have been the recommendation or mandate to wear a face mask and to keep a minimal physical distance from others.
These measures are highly generic and low cost, in the sense that they can be implemented in response to a wide array of similarly transmissible infectious diseases, in the short term and with relatively modest economic effort.
However, despite their clearly beneficial potential, the relationship between wearing a face mask and keeping a minimal distance from others is still an object of controversy. The article addresses the following questions: - Do people interact closer when the face mask is worn?
Although the present report focuses on the effect of face mask use, the experiment was also conceived to test those of perceived race and social status. People interact closer when a face mask is worn but risk compensation is at best partial. Martin Aranguren et al. Image bvldone via Shutterstock.
