Face masks have a limited influence on first impressions: evidence from three experiments

Twele, Anita C.; Thierry, Sophia M.; Mondloch, Catherine J.

doi:10.1177/03010066221091729

Cited by 12 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…Thus, it might be that when asked to make trustworthiness and approachability judgments of angry faces, there may be no difference between masked versus unmasked faces, unlike what is found here when happy faces were used. A recent study (Twele et al, 2022 ) had explored this to a certain extent with a focus on trustworthiness; further work is still needed particularly on approachability.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Face masks inhibit facial cues for approachability and trustworthiness: an eyetracking study

Bylianto

Chan

2022

Curr Psychol

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Wearing face masks during the Covid-19 pandemic has undeniable benefits from our health perspective. However, the interpersonal costs on social interactions may have been underappreciated. Because masks obscure critical facial regions signaling approach/avoidance intent and social trust, this implies that facial inference of approachability and trustworthiness may be severely discounted. Here, in our eyetracking experiment, we show that people judged masked faces as less approachable and trustworthy. Further analyses showed that the attention directed towards the eye region relative to the mouth region mediated the effect on approachability, but not on trustworthiness. This is because for masked faces, with the mouth region obscured, visual attention is then automatically diverted away from the mouth and towards the eye region, which is an undiagnostic cue for judging a target’s approachability. Together, these findings support that mask-wearing inhibits the critical facial cues needed for social judgements.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Face masks inhibit facial cues for approachability and trustworthiness: an eyetracking study

Bylianto

Chan

2022

Curr Psychol

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“…Although past research has investigated the influence of masks on person perception, these studies have focused on only a few traits and the results have been mixed. For example, some studies related to predominantly White targets have found no evidence for the impact of masks on perceived trustworthiness (Grundmann et al., 2021; Twele et al., 2022) or competence/dominance (Oldmeadow & Koch, 2021), while other studies have demonstrated a positive impact of masks on trustworthiness (Fang & Kawakami, under review; Oldmeadow & Koch, 2021; Olivera‐La Rosa et al., 2020) and competence (Fang & Kawakami, under review). Yet other studies have found a negative impact on trustworthiness (Malik et al., 2021) and competence (Twele et al., 2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of face masks on perceptions of black and white targets during the COVID‐19 pandemic

Kawakami

Manokara

Fang

2023

Social & Personality Psych

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Although the use of face masks was widespread during the COVID‐19 pandemic, their impact on social perceptions is unclear. Notably, research that has investigated the influence of masks on personality attributions has focused on a small set of characteristics with a focus on predominantly White targets, and only few studies examining more diverse groups. Because the race of targets has been found to impact impression formation processes in significant ways, it is important to examine diverse racial targets along with a wider range of personality traits. The goal of the present research therefore was to explore how face masks impact a variety of trait attributions for both White and Black targets. Our results indicate that masking faces has positive implications (i.e., more trustworthy, warm, competent, and less threatening) for White but not Black targets. Notably, both White and Black targets with masks compared to without masks were perceived as more attractive, but the effect was smaller for Black targets. Because COVID‐19 continues to be a public health emergency of international concern, with infections and deaths occurring around the world and with mask mandates still being implemented in a variety of contexts, knowing how people differentially respond to targets of different races wearing masks remains relevant and important.

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“…In a rating study by Biermann et al (2021) , masked faces were evaluated as less trustworthy and less happy than unmasked faces; however, this effect was attenuated in participants who experienced high psychological distress and risk perception associated with the pandemic, and who showed high compliance with prevention measures to avoid infection. In a set of experiments, Twele et al (2022) pointed out that facial masks might have a limited impact in forming first impressions of unfamiliar faces from across the lifespan. Specifically, they found that young adult faces with happy expressions were rated as more trustworthy than neutral faces, even when the same face had been previously seen with a mask; and that the presence of masks does not affect the adult’s perceived niceness of childs’ faces and the trustworthiness and competence of older adults face.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wearing the face mask affects our social attention over space

et al. 2022

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Recent studies suggest that covering the face inhibits the recognition of identity and emotional expressions. However, it might also make the eyes more salient, since they are a reliable index to orient our social and spatial attention. This study investigates (1) whether the pervasive interaction with people with face masks fostered by the COVID-19 pandemic modulates the processing of spatial information essential to shift attention according to other’s eye-gaze direction (i.e., gaze-cueing effect: GCE), and (2) whether this potential modulation interacts with motor responses (i.e., Simon effect). Participants were presented with face cues orienting their gaze to a congruent or incongruent target letter location (gaze-cueing paradigm) while wearing a surgical mask (Mask), a patch (Control), or nothing (No-Mask). The task required to discriminate the identity of the lateralized target letters by pressing one of two lateralized response keys, in a corresponding or a non-corresponding position with respect to the target. Results showed that GCE was not modulated by the presence of the Mask, but it occurred in the No-Mask condition, confirming previous studies. Crucially, the GCE interacted with Simon effect in the Mask and Control conditions, though in different ways. While in the Mask condition the GCE emerged only when target and response positions corresponded (i.e., Simon-corresponding trials), in the Control condition it emerged only when they did not correspond (i.e., Simon-non-corresponding trials). These results indicate that people with face masks induce us to jointly orient our visual attention in the direction of the seen gaze (GCE) in those conditions resembling (or associated with) a general approaching behavior (Simon-corresponding trials). This is likely promoted by the fact that we tend to perceive wearing the mask as a personal safety measure and, thus, someone wearing the face mask is perceived as a trustworthy person. In contrast, people with a patch on their face can be perceived as more threatening, therefore inducing a GCE in those conditions associated with a general avoidance behavior (Simon-non-corresponding trials).

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Face masks have a limited influence on first impressions: evidence from three experiments

Cited by 12 publications

References 45 publications

Face masks inhibit facial cues for approachability and trustworthiness: an eyetracking study

Face masks inhibit facial cues for approachability and trustworthiness: an eyetracking study

Impact of face masks on perceptions of black and white targets during the COVID‐19 pandemic

Wearing the face mask affects our social attention over space

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