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

Abstract

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.

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

“…Information from both the eye and mouth region is involved in trustworthiness and competence judgements (Dotsch & Todorov, 2012;Olivola & Todorov, 2010;Riggio & Riggio, 2010), so it is reasonable to assume that masks could lead to similar perceptual effects. In support of this, Marini et al (2021) found that transparent face masks did not have a significant effect on trustworthiness judgements, whereas opaque masks did affect trustworthiness judgements for some faces (specifically, they increased trustworthiness ratings for "untrustworthy" faces) (see also Biermann et al, 2021). Attractiveness judgements are influenced by facial symmetry (Rhodes, 2006) and contrast, particularly in the eye region (Killian et al, 2018).…”

“…Much of the data about masks and face processing reported to date was collected in the early months of the pandemic-for example, Biermann et al (2021) collected data between July and October 2020, when masks had been mandatory for three to six months in Germany (where the data was collected). At this point, most individuals in Western countries had relatively limited exposure to masks, so it is unsurprising that this unfamiliar perceptual occlusion disrupted face perception.…”

“…In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, use of face coverings (masks) 1 was introduced to mitigate the spread of the disease in many countries (Felter & Bussemaker, 2020). Masks offer substantial public health benefits (Brooks & Butler, 2021;Howard et al, 2021), but there is preliminary evidence that they may impair social interactions by obscuring areas of the face that carry cues to emotions, identity, speech information, and other social judgements (Biermann et al, 2021;Carbon, 2020;Freud et al, 2020;Marini et al, 2021;Noyes et al, 2021;Saunders et al, 2021). However, the consistency of these effects over time (i.e., as people adjust to the use of masks in everyday life) and across individuals remains unclear.…”

Masked Emotions: Do Face Mask Patterns and Colors Affect the Recognition of Emotions?

“…In a recent study by Bierman et al (2021), a stronger negative bias was found in happiness and trustworthiness judgments of faces with masks for those who attribute less protective effect to masks, have a lower experienced risk concerning COVID-19 and those who see face mask wearing as a burden. Further, for trustworthiness appraisals, the negative bias was stronger for those who tend to comply less with the face mask wearing rules (Biermann et al, 2021). Further, face masks by themselves may also have negative associations with danger (e.g., pollution, disease) and covering face even by a non-mask fabric (e.g., scarf) may trigger the feelings of insecurity (i.e., someone is hiding true emotions or having bad and unclear intentions).…”

Changes in Japanese Junior High School Students' Sense of Coherence Before and After the Onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Longitudinal Study of Children and Mothers

“…Now that the physical distance from others has increased drastically, it is possible that the psychological sense of distance with friends is also changing, and that it may be working positively or negatively for them. Particularly, living with a mask every day is likely to make it difficult to read facial expressions and understand emotions ( 17 ). That is, students' current school and family life is completely different from the lives they had prior to the pandemic.…”