Fidan Ismayilova

Writing 1101

Critique-Final Draft

17/11/2021

The Psychology of Masks:

Why have so many people stopped covering their faces?

If masks are not legally required during pandemic, would people refuse to wear them?

The article “The Psychology of Masks: Why have so many people stopped covering their

faces? “by Emine Saner (2021) mainly questions the reasons why a significant number of

people in England have abandoned wearing a mask during the Covid 19 pandemic. Although

different opinions are provided in the article, language, and weak structure are the pitfalls of

the article.

The main purpose of the article is to clarify the reasons why a significant number of

people stopped wearing a mask despite the risk of coronavirus. The author mentions that

some people refused to wear a mask when the legal requirement to wear face masks ended in

England. Another reason was that people were being inherently anti-mask, that the British

won’t wear masks. There were “racist notions”, says Reicher, “like ‘British people are not

pliant like those from Asia’ [where mask-wearing is common]. Moreover, the mask is what

reminds people that the pandemic is going on. When people start taking it away, the notion

that there is a reason to do anything is undermined. A perception of 'Is there a degree of risk?'

is one of the most basic, evident, and strong predictors of individuals engaging in protective

behavior. If you tell them there's no danger, they're not going to wear masks. Also, the rate of

people refusing face masks increased because they felt awkward when they saw that others

did not wear a mask. “Risk compensation” and “Tribalism” were other factors in declining
mask-wearing according to Nattavudh Powdthavee, a professor of behavioral science at

Warwick Business School.

The major strength of the article is that the author provided different ideas to explain the

factors which caused many people to stop wearing a mask during the pandemic. The author

focuses on different people’s opinions rather than her personal ideas and feelings. In other

words, the author’s purpose is to find an answer for the main question, and she provides these

answers from different perspectives. For instance, this article's key points actually show that

the author indicates various people’s opinions about wearing a mask and diverse researches.

For instance, some people refused to wear a mask as it was not mandatory; however, some

people refused because of “Tribalism” or “Risk compensation”. It proves that the author

provides different reasons and answers to the main question of the article.

On the other hand, there is also some weaknesses which the article comprises, and the

major one is the language of the article. The author uses mostly informal language. For

instance, this article contains some informal words such as “very, really, things, going”,

contractions (can’t, don’t, wouldn’t), and a colloquialism (put back on, take off, rule out,

getting on). Furthermore, sentence structures are mostly too long, and there are grammar

mistakes (for example, the government appear) and punctuation issues (before “and” there

should be commas). In addition, transition words that combine the paragraphs and show the

link between them are missing.

Taking everything into account, despite the fact that the author objectively analyses

diverse opinions and reasons for refusing a mask-wearing during the pandemic, she fails to

provide academic language. In this sense, the article could be improved by removing

informal words and phrases from the article and adding appropriate academic words instead.

Furthermore, the sentence structures which are too long can be simplified to avoid

unclearness.