What's Behind Anti-Mask Tantrums and Demonstrations?
The other day in Santa Cruz, California, anti-maskers staged a protest at a Trader Joes. It was the second time they'd protested there. The first time they got inside, but this time they were blocked by a phalanx of store employees. Prevented from getting inside, they settled for harassing masked shoppers who were coming and going. The hypocrisy is astonishing: People who want to make their own choices about wearing masks are attacking people for making a different choice than they would. More common is the individual version of this, where people throw tantrums because someone asks them to wear a mask. These mask-holes trash stores , get into fights , and disrupt airline flights. What causes people to behave this way? Have they lost their freaking minds? A leading candidate explanation is psychological reactance . In a nutshell, it says that when people believe a freedom is being taken away from them, they put up resistance. Psychologist Jack...