My name is Daniel Van Zant. I am most of the way through a PhD in computational and theoretical neuroscience. I am focused on shortening the timeline from scientific exploration to tangible impact. Here's my personal website: www.danielvanzant.com
A large portion of the world already wears masks regularly in the form of niqabs. I'm sure there's some research out there on niqab-wearing that could help support or falsify some of your hypotheses. It may be worth looking into if you are interested in pursuing this question further. For future posts on this I would also be interested in what you think would be most likely to lead to most of the world wearing masks. I think that would shape a lot of how masks are used and the effects and social connotations that they have.
I have always enjoyed the Omelas story and I think this is a useful thought. This feels like an extension of some of the ideas in The emotional dog and its rational tail to handle cognitive dissonance. When we are faced with large societal issues (whether utilitarian or not) that we find objectionable, we are faced with two choices. We can either change our actions to put ourselves in opposition to the practice, or we can figure out a way to justify it morally. The latter can often be the path of least resistance and I would put 74% odds that it is the one that leads to higher subjective well-being. I
A large portion of the world already wears masks regularly in the form of niqabs. I'm sure there's some research out there on niqab-wearing that could help support or falsify some of your hypotheses. It may be worth looking into if you are interested in pursuing this question further. For future posts on this I would also be interested in what you think would be most likely to lead to most of the world wearing masks. I think that would shape a lot of how masks are used and the effects and social connotations that they have.