95% of respondents report wearing mask when required - 54% think others do

We have carried out two identical surveys of our readers, focusing on your mask wearing habits as well as your overall views on face masks. We collected data in August of 2020 and again this weekend, just over half a year apart, to see how your views and habits have changed over time.

Before we get into the results, it should be clear that this is not a scientific study - merely an informal survey of our readers. You may also be interested to know that we received 1,386 responses in the August 2020 poll, and 2,095 in the more recent one.

Now, let's take a look at what we found!

Broad feelings towards facemask remain stable

There hasn't been much change in your overall feelings towards face masks - back August of last year, 58% were generally positive, which has dipped somewhat to 50% today. That said, there was no change in the proportion of people with a negative view of them, which remained at 24%.

We also asked if you were convinced that masks are helpful in stopping the spread of Covid-19, and there wasn't much change here either. Back in August, 73% of you said yes, 9% were unsure, and 18% said no. In the second poll the figures were 78%, 10%, and 12% respectively.

Wearing a mask when you're supposed to

Perhaps the most interesting finding, yet not the most surprising. We wanted to see if there was a discrepancy between your assessment of the extent to which you comply with mask-wearing regulations, and the extent to which others do.

In the most recent poll, we found that 95% of people reported that they always wear a mask when it is required, with 3% saying that they mostly do, and only 2% stating that they do not. You would think, then, that the general perception would be that others do as well - but that's not the case.

Only 40% of respondents said that other people generally wear a mask when it is required, 54% said that they mostly do, and 5% reported that they do not.

So, while nearly all of our respondents signalled perfect compliance for themselves, their general perception was that the majority of others don't fully comply with the rules.  Now, that doesn't mean that a bunch of you lied about your own habits, or were overly negative about your fellow RTL Today readers.. it could simply be that our readers are exceptionally compliant, while those who rely on other sources for their news are more rebellious..

On the bright side, both own mask-wearing and the perception of others has improved since our first poll, as you can see below.

Buying habits and the future of masks

Unsurprisingly, a majority of you - 72% - had bought at least one reusable mask by the time we ran the second poll, up from 58% August. Most of you had spent between €0-15, which was also the case back in August.

In terms of quantity, there has been a pretty impressive in the number of respondents who had bought 6 or more masks - 42%, up from 28%.

Finally, there wasn't much change in terms of your intentions to wear masks once the requirement is lifted. 27% of you said you would (26% in August), 33% (36%) were unsure, while 40% (36%) said they had no such intention.

The photos published on this site are subject to copyright and may not be copied, modified, or sold without the prior permission of the owner of the site in question.

Demographic differences

We had a look at some demographic differences as well - age, gender, whether or not you have kids - but didn't find any significant differences between these groups.

The main difference we found is that people who identified as female were slightly more likely (31%) than men (22%) to signal the intention to wear a mask even after the requirement is lifted.

Beyond that, the differences were largely small enough to be statistically insignificant.