Mask or No Mask during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Game-Theoretic Approach

Wearing a mask as one of the crucial non-pharmaceutical interventions has demonstrated to be effective in the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic. The implementation of face coverings for the public remains controversial and still faces some challenges. Whether or not to wear the mask could be a complex decision-making processing, involving the trade-offs between self-interest and collective interest among multiple stakeholders. In the literature, there is a lack of quantitative analysis for strategic mask-wearing decisions during the pandemic. This paper fills the gap by studying a game-theoretic model on wearing the mask considering conflicting interests. Using a susceptible-infected-susceptible (SIS) model, we consider the players as either susceptible or infectious, characterized by homogeneous preferences within the group but heterogeneous preferences between groups. Then we propose a game-theoretic framework to model how both susceptible and infectious players make their decisions. We implement one-way sensitivity analyses to examine how the equilibrium solutions are sensitive to changes in the model parameters. The proposed game model shows that susceptible player is more likely to wear face masks compared to infectious player, when the likelihood or the cost of infection is large. Decreasing the cost of wearing masks or increasing the mask efficacy could help mitigate the reluctance of mask wearing. This paper provides insights on population mask-wearing behaviors, which can support policy makers to design regulations and incentives.