There is something universal in religious experience that makes people feel that they are not just above the law, but above Hashem’s natural laws. A recent research in Bangladesh looked at community-level effect of masking – they advertised masks in some villages and compared with similar villages without advertisement.
One of interesting results was that masking lead to increase in SD, rather than decrease as famous sociologist Fauci was afraid. Specifically – SD increased in market places, but did not in mosques … Maybe somehow people think that doing Hashem’s will protect them.