Cognitive dissonance occurs when a behavior (taking vax) goes against beliefs (cognition) which causes stress and creates motivation for people to change either their behaviors or beliefs to regain alignment. In this case since you cannot un-take the vax, it is motivating a change in beliefs. This week known phenomenon was validated experimental by Festinger and Carlsmith as far back as 1959.
“Forced Compliance Behavior When someone is forced to do (publicly) something they (privately) really don't want to do, dissonance is created between their cognition (I didn't want to do this) and their behavior (I did it).
Forced compliance occurs when an individual performs an action that is inconsistent with his or her beliefs. The behavior can't be changed, since it was already in the past, so dissonance will need to be reduced by re-evaluating their attitude to what they have done. This prediction has been tested experimentally”
Link in post.
Source: https://www.simplypsychology.org/cognitive-dissonance.html
Forgot to mention that the same is probably true of mask wearing but because in this case you can change your behavior (stop wearing mask) it’s likely that behavioral change will occur. Though due to the amount of time invested in the behavior, it’s possible that beliefs will change too due to another concept called escalation of commitment. This difference between changing perception for the vax vs mask would be an interesting thesis to test via a survey.
The masks probably serve multiple purposes:
I think hand sanitizer is effective esp before eating. Masks… they have some minute advantages to blocking heavy droplets though I’m practice those would probably not aerosol and would only effect contact surfaces. Thus hand sanitizer.