The COVID-19 pandemic masks the way people perceive faces

Freud, Erez; Stajduhar, Andreja; Rosenbaum, R. Shayna; Avidan, Galia; Ganel, Tzvi

doi:10.1038/s41598-020-78986-9

Cited by 156 publications

(209 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…Further, other pandemic-related factors which are likely to contribute to the appraisal of social scenes should be assessed. For instance, the use of face masks, which has already been found to contribute to changes in other social cognitive processes, like face perception (Freud et al, 2020), the ability to recognize emotions (Carbon, 2020) and the attribution of trust (Marini et al, 2021).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Large Gatherings? No, Thank You. Devaluation of Crowded Social Scenes During the COVID-19 Pandemic

et al. 2021

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In most European countries, the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic (spring 2020) led to the imposition of physical distancing rules, resulting in a drastic and sudden reduction of real-life social interactions. Even people not directly affected by the virus itself were impacted in their physical and/or mental health, as well as in their financial security, by governmental lockdown measures. We investigated whether the combination of these events had changed people's appraisal of social scenes by testing 241 participants recruited mainly in Italy, Austria, and Germany in an online, preregistered study conducted about 50 days after the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak in Europe. Images depicting individuals alone, in small groups (up to four people), and in large groups (more than seven people) were rated in terms of valence, arousal, and perceived physical distance. Pre-pandemic normative ratings were obtained from a validated database (OASIS). Several self-report measures were also taken, and condensed into four factors through factor analysis. All images were rated as more arousing compared to the pre-pandemic period, and the greater the decrease in real-life physical interactions reported by participants, the higher the ratings of arousal. As expected, only images depicting large gatherings of people were rated less positively during, compared to before, the pandemic. These ratings of valence were, however, moderated by a factor that included participants' number of days in isolation, relationship closeness, and perceived COVID-19 threat. Higher scores on this factor were associated with more positive ratings of images of individuals alone and in small groups, suggesting an increased appreciation of safer social situations, such as intimate and small-group contacts. The same factor was inversely related to the perceived physical distance between individuals in images of small and large groups, suggesting an impact of lockdown measures and contagion-related worries on the representation of interpersonal space. These findings point to rapid and compelling psychological and social consequences of the lockdown measures imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic on the perception of social groups. Further studies should assess the long-term impact of such events as typical everyday life is restored.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Large Gatherings? No, Thank You. Devaluation of Crowded Social Scenes During the COVID-19 Pandemic

et al. 2021

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“…3]. In addition, they are assumed to increase mental stress during interpersonal encounters; they might make social judgements more difficult by partially hiding facial features indicating another person's emotions and intentions, thereby hampering smooth social interactions [5][6][7]. Some authors have already suggested how to deal with these social issues, for example by designing face masks with simple expressive display elements [8] or inducing facial muscle paralysis by botulinum toxin targeting the muscles of the top visible half of the face in order to reduce negative emotions and promote well-being for both the mask-wearer and those who come in contact with that individual [9].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…First studies have revealed that the identification of an individual [ 6 , 7 ] and the recognition of an emotional state are faultier for faces covered by MNCs [ 5 , 10 , 20 ]. In a sample of 40 healthy participants, recognising basic emotions such as happiness, anger, fearfulness, and disgust was less accurate when faces were covered by MNCs, and participants often misclassified disgusted faces as angry, and joyful faces as neutral, that is, as displaying no emotion at all [ 5 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trustworthiness appraisals of faces wearing a surgical mask during the Covid-19 pandemic in Germany: An experimental study

et al. 2021

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Background During the Covid-19 pandemic, the negative effects of wearing a mouth-nose cover (MNC) on interpersonal functioning have been discussed in public media but empirical studies on how wearing MNCs affect social judgements are sparse. In the present study, we investigated the effects of MNCs on trustworthiness appraisals, the influence of changes due to MNCs in evaluating joy, and the relationship between a social-cognitive appraisal bias and a participant’s characteristics. Methods All participants (N = 165) judged the intensity of happiness and trustworthiness in calm facial stimuli presented with and without a surgical mask covering part of the face. We analysed the relationship of changes in judgements evoked by MNCs to participants’ evaluations of MNCs as protective tools and explored their associations with the burden experienced by wearing MNCs, compliance to behaviour recommendations, their risk associated with the pandemic, and their levels of psychological distress. Results Overall, calm facial stimuli covered with MNCs were evaluated as less trustworthy and, to an even stronger extent, less happy than uncovered facial stimuli. However, participants varied in whether they showed a negative or positive evaluation of faces with MNCs; the negative bias was stronger in those participants who attributed lower protective potential to MNCs, experienced a higher burden while wearing MNCs, wore MNCs less often, and experienced a higher level of psychological distress. Conclusions A negative bias in trustworthiness appraisals of faces with a positive emotional expression covered by MNCs is linked to a participant’s evaluation of MNCs as inefficient and burdening and their experience of high psychological distress.

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“…More generally, facial and social skills are essential abilities for navigating in our modern society. With the ongoing pandemic, the ability to decode social information from faces on a screen or from the eye region (as faces are partially occluded with masks) has recently become one of the main tools in social interactions 91 . This ability relies on a complex cerebral network 28 .…”

Section: What Are the Interventional Implications Of These Results?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Dissociation of early and late face-related processes in Autism Spectrum Disorder and Williams syndrome

Gomez

Lio

Costa

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Williams syndrome (WS) are characterized by atypical social interaction and face processing, with opposite profiles. Evoked activity in the superior temporal sulcus (STS) occurring at 260ms is an eyes-sensitive neuronal marker. Here, we tested whether a double dissociation between these two syndromes is also observed at the cerebral level within faces processing network. Forty-two participants divided into three groups (diagnosed with WS, ASD or without neurodevelopmental disorders) performed a face perception task during a high-density EEG recording. In each trial, a particular area of the face was flashed under the participants fovea. First, using the predefined filter STS at 260ms, we found that the cortical sensitivity of STS to facial features, observed in neurotypical participants1, extended to patients with WS as opposed to patients with ASD. Again, this activity was eyes sensitive. Next, we used spatial regressor of the face cue map and computed, at each time point (without spatial a priori), to what extent the multichannel EEG signal could decode this regressor. We showed that, in contrast to patients with ASD, WS patients and young adults, produce a late (260ms) STS evoked response that is sensitive to socially relevant facial features (such as the eye and mouth). We also showed that the early (170ms) evoked response can be predicted by socially relevant facial features in patients with ASD and controls, but not in WS patients. In patients with WS, the decoding peak occurred only in the late component (at 260 ms) of the EEG, while, for patients with ASD, it occurred preferentially in the early component (at 170 ms). The present study confirms the previous results reported by Lio et al. and extend these findings by dissociating the time course of neural processes involved in face perception in WS and ASD patients. It reveals a dissociation among these two patients groups and suggest that although both syndromes are associated with social disturbances, their impairment at the neural level may have a different origin. These results provide essential evidence for understanding what, where and when neurocomputations are performed in our brain.

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The COVID-19 pandemic masks the way people perceive faces

Cited by 156 publications

References 44 publications

Large Gatherings? No, Thank You. Devaluation of Crowded Social Scenes During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Large Gatherings? No, Thank You. Devaluation of Crowded Social Scenes During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Trustworthiness appraisals of faces wearing a surgical mask during the Covid-19 pandemic in Germany: An experimental study

Dissociation of early and late face-related processes in Autism Spectrum Disorder and Williams syndrome

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