Face masks versus sunglasses: limited effects of time and individual differences in the ability to judge facial identity and social traits

Bennetts, Rachel; Humphrey, Poppy Johnson; Zielińska, Paulina; Bate, Sarah

doi:10.1186/s41235-022-00371-z

Cited by 16 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 76 publications

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“…Increased exposure to masked faces may also improve emotion recognition by increasing perceptual expertise. However, there is evidence for the effect of masks on other face processing tasks staying consistent over 13 months of the pandemic (Bennetts et al, 2022 ). Previous research has found that perceptual learning can shape emotion perception (Pollak et al, 2009 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effects of face coverings, own-ethnicity biases, and attitudes on emotion recognition

et al. 2022

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As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, face coverings were introduced as a safety measure in certain environments in England and some research suggests that they can affect emotion recognition. Factors such as own-ethnicity bias (e.g. whether people perceiving and expressing emotions are of the same ethnicity) and social biases are also known to influence emotion recognition. However, it is unclear whether these factors interact with face coverings to affect emotion recognition. Therefore, this study examined the effects of face coverings, own-ethnicity biases, and attitudes on emotion recognition accuracy. In this study, 131 participants viewed masked and unmasked emotional faces varying in ethnicity and completed a questionnaire on their attitudes towards face masks. We found that emotion recognition was associated with masks and attitudes: accuracy was lower in masked than unmasked conditions and attitudes towards masks Inside and Outside were associated with emotion recognition. However, a match between perceiver and stimulus ethnicity did not have a significant effect on emotion recognition. Ultimately, our results suggest that masks, and negative attitudes towards them, were associated with poorer emotion recognition. Future research should explore different mask-wearing behaviours and possible in-group/out-group biases and their interaction with other social cues (e.g. in-group biases).

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effects of face coverings, own-ethnicity biases, and attitudes on emotion recognition

et al. 2022

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“…In line with the observations from SRs, self-reported recognition ability within the typical population showed a small but negative correlation with the magnitude of mask effects on accuracy in matched identity trials (but not other measures of performance). Interestingly, extended natural exposure of adults to faces wearing masks during the COVID-19 pandemic did not lead to an improvement in recognizing masked faces (Bennetts et al, 2022 ; Freud et al, 2021 ). In the present study, we did not investigate to what extent general face recognition ability or the amount of exposure to masks correlates with mask memory and this could be an interesting avenue for future research.…”

Section: Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, at the group level, they outperformed control participants. Moreover, Bennetts et al ( 2022 ) observed that control participants had a tendency to respond more conservatively than SRs, when one of two face images wore a mask. In line with Noyes et al ( 2021 ), they also observed that both control participants’ and SRs’ matching performance decreased when one face was wearing a mask.…”

Section: Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The influence of familiarity on memory for faces and mask wearing

Kollenda

Haas

2022

Cogn. Research

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During the COVID-19 pandemic, the wearing of face masks became mandatory in public areas or at workplaces in many countries. While offering protection, the coverage of large parts of our face (nose, mouth and chin) may have consequences for face recognition. This seems especially important in the context of contact tracing which can require memory of familiar and unfamiliar contacts and whether they were wearing a mask. In this study, we tested how well participants perform at remembering faces and whether they wore a mask, and if this depends on familiarity. Our results show that: (a) Participants remembered familiar faces better than unfamiliar ones, regardless of mask wearing. (b) Participants remembered unmasked faces better than masked faces, regardless of familiarity. (c) Participants were significantly worse at remembering whether an unfamiliar face was wearing a mask or not—even if they indicated remembering the face. (d) Participants showed a bias to indicate no memory of unfamiliar faces. (e) Participants showed a bias to indicate that unfamiliar faces wore a mask, even if they did not. In sum, it was harder to remember both, the identity of unfamiliar faces and whether they wore a mask. These findings have practical relevance for contact tracing and epidemic control.

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“…In line with the observations from SRs, self-reported recognition ability within the typical population showed a small but negative correlation with the magnitude of mask effects on accuracy in matched identity trials (but not other measures of performance). Interestingly, extended natural exposure of adults to faces wearing masks during the COVID-19 pandemic did not lead to an improvement in recognizing masked faces (Bennetts et al, 2022;Freud et al, 2021). In the present study, we did not investigate to what extent general face recognition ability or the amount of exposure to masks correlates with mask memory and this could be an interesting avenue for future research.…”

Section: Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 70%

The Influence of Familiarity on Memory for Faces and Mask Wearing

Kollenda¹,

Haas²

2022

Preprint

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During the COVID-19 pandemic the wearing of face masks became mandatory in public areas or at workplaces in many countries. While offering protection, the coverage of large parts of our face (nose, mouth and chin) may have consequences for face recognition. This seems especially important in the context of contact tracing which can require memory of familiar and unfamiliar contacts and whether they were wearing a mask. In this study, we tested how well participants perform at remembering faces and whether they wore a mask, and if this depends on familiarity. Our results show that: a) Participants remembered familiar faces better than unfamiliar ones, regardless of mask wearing. b) Participants remembered unmasked faces better than masked faces, regardless of familiarity. c) Participants were significantly worse at remembering whether an unfamiliar face was wearing a mask or not – even if they indicated remembering the face. d) Participants showed a bias to indicate no memory of unfamiliar faces. e) Participants showed a bias to indicate that unfamiliar faces wore a mask, even if they did not. In sum, it was harder to remember both, the identity of unfamiliar faces and whether they wore a mask. These findings have practical relevance for contact tracing and epidemic control.

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Face masks versus sunglasses: limited effects of time and individual differences in the ability to judge facial identity and social traits

Cited by 16 publications

References 76 publications

The effects of face coverings, own-ethnicity biases, and attitudes on emotion recognition

The effects of face coverings, own-ethnicity biases, and attitudes on emotion recognition

The influence of familiarity on memory for faces and mask wearing

The Influence of Familiarity on Memory for Faces and Mask Wearing

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