Face Mask Impairment in Basic Emotion Recognition
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54097/7rb89g34Keywords:
Emotion recognition; face masks; facial expression.Abstract
Wearing masks is crucial for preventing the spread of viruses. However, their widespread adoption may pose challenges to reading facial expressions. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, a flurry of research examined how face coverings affect emotional decoding skills. Yet their findings were inconsistent. This study aims to delve deep into the impact of mask-wearing on emotional recognition. A total of 113 participants (65% female, mean age = 23.61) took part in the study. Participants were tasked with identifying emotions—neutrality, fear, happiness, sadness, anger, disgust, and surprise—by looking at faces both masked and unmasked. Unbiased hit rate (Hu), which helps minimize response biases, was employed as the measure. The results revealed marked differences in Hu scores between the masked and unmasked faces for every emotion, pointing to a detrimental effect of masks on emotion decoding. These outcomes underscore the need for alternative strategies that could effectively blend health safety with the maintenance of vital facial expressions, which is crucial for understanding emotions.
Downloads
References
[1] Ekman, P. (2004). In Language, knowledge, and representation: Proceedings of the sixth international colloquium on cognitive science (ICCS-99). Springer Netherlands.
[2] Wegrzyn, M., Vogt, M., Kireclioglu, B., Schneider, J., & Kissler, J. (2017). Mapping the emotional face. How individual face parts contribute to successful emotion recognition. PloS One, 12(5), e0177239.
[3] Smith, M. L., Cottrell, G. W., Gosselin, F., & Schyns, P. G. (2005). Transmitting and decoding facial expressions. Psychological science, 16(3), 184-189.
[4] Carbon, C. C. (2020). Wearing face masks strongly confuses counterparts in reading emotions. Frontiers in psychology, 11, 566886.
[5] Tsantani, M., Podgajecka, V., Gray, K. L., & Cook, R. (2022). How does the presence of a surgical face mask impair the perceived intensity of facial emotions?. PLoS One, 17(1), e0262344.
[6] Grenville, E., & Dwyer, D. M. (2022). Face masks have emotion-dependent dissociable effects on accuracy and confidence in identifying facial expressions of emotion. Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, 7(1), 15.
[7] Parada-Fernández, P., Herrero-Fernández, D., Jorge, R., & Comesaña, P. (2022). Wearing mask hinders emotion recognition, but enhances perception of attractiveness. Personality and Individual Differences, 184, 111195.
[8] Miyazaki, Y., Kamatani, M., Suda, T., Wakasugi, K., Matsunaga, K., & Kawahara, J. I. (2022). Effects of wearing a transparent face mask on perception of facial expressions. I-Perception, 13(3), 20416695221105910.
[9] Kim, G., Seong, S. H., Hong, S. S., & Choi, E. (2022). Impact of face masks and sunglasses on emotion recognition in South Koreans. PloS one, 17(2), e0263466.
[10] Bani, M., Russo, S., Ardenghi, S., Rampoldi, G., Wickline, V., Nowicki Jr, S., & Strepparava, M. G. (2021). Behind the mask: Emotion recognition in healthcare students. Medical science educator, 31(4), 1273-1277.
[11] Rinck, M., Primbs, M. A., Verpaalen, I. A., & Bijlstra, G. (2022). Face masks impair facial emotion recognition and induce specific emotion confusions. Cognitive research: Principles and implications, 7(1), 83.
[12] Grahlow, M., Rupp, C. I., & Derntl, B. (2022). The impact of face masks on emotion recognition performance and perception of threat. PLoS One, 17(2), e0262840.
[13] Wagner, H. L. (1993). On measuring performance in category judgment studies of nonverbal behavior. Journal of nonverbal behavior, 17, 3-28.
[14] McCrackin, S. D., Capozzi, F., Mayrand, F., & Ristic, J. (2022). Face masks impair basic emotion recognition. Social Psychology, 54(1-2).
[15] Han, S., Guo, Y., Zhou, X., Huang, J., Shen, L., & Luo, Y. (2023). A Chinese Face Dataset with Dynamic Expressions and Diverse Ages Synthesized by Deep Learning. Scientific Data, 10(1), 878.
[16] Hsiao, J. H. W., Liao, W., & Tso, R. V. Y. (2022). Impact of mask use on face recognition: An eye-tracking study. Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, 7(1), 32.
[17] Bassili, J. N. (1979). Emotion recognition: the role of facial movement and the relative importance of upper and lower areas of the face. Journal of personality and social psychology, 37(11), 2049.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Journal of Education, Humanities and Social Sciences
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
How to Cite
