[g1313]

I would argue that the political problem stems from human psychology - it's much easier to just base your decisions on what authority figures you respect / all your friends / the party you identify with believe, vs building your own first principles opinion.

People naturally take the easiest thought path, and it's much easier to think "I don't want to be forced to do anything" than the complexity of weighing the tradeoffs of when it makes sense to have regulations. I think we are all susceptible to this to some extent. A good book to read if you really want to question whether you ever really make a good decision is Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman.

This response overlooks this fairly strong relationship between political persuasion and adoption of social distancing, mask wearing, etc.: https://www.denverpost.com/2020/05/07/fa...ronavirus/

This isn't a general human psychology problem.  It's a political problem.  Let's face it: one political party has spent years arguing that government is bad, the individual is paramount, and science should not be trusted.  Resistance to simple practices that might save lives is just the natural outgrowth of this mindset. 

It would be interesting to model how successfully social distancing, masks, etc. can reduce R when a certain fraction of the population refuses to change their behavior.

PS Thinking Fast and Slow is still a fantastic book, and I recommend it to everyone.

[g1313]

I would argue that the political problem stems from human psychology - it's much easier to just base your decisions on what authority figures you respect / all your friends / the party you identify with believe, vs building your own first principles opinion.

People naturally take the easiest thought path, and it's much easier to think "I don't want to be forced to do anything" than the complexity of weighing the tradeoffs of when it makes sense to have regulations. I think we are all susceptible to this to some extent. A good book to read if you really want to question whether you ever really make a good decision is Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman.

This response overlooks this fairly strong relationship between political persuasion and adoption of social distancing, mask wearing, etc.: https://www.denverpost.com/2020/05/07/fa...ronavirus/

This isn't a general human psychology problem.  It's a political problem.  Let's face it: one political party has spent years arguing that government is bad, the individual is paramount, and science should not be trusted.  Resistance to simple practices that might save lives is just the natural outgrowth of this mindset. 

It would be interesting to model how successfully social distancing, masks, etc. can reduce R when a certain fraction of the population refuses to change their behavior.

PS Thinking Fast and Slow is still a fantastic book, and I recommend it to everyone.