Face masks impact social interactions because emotion recognition is difficult due to face occlusion. However, is this enough to conclude that face masks negatively impact social interactions? We investigated the impact of face masks on invariant characteristics sex, age , trait-like characteristics trustworthiness, attractiveness, and approachability , and emotional expressions happiness and excitability.
Participants completed an online survey and rated masked and no-masked faces. The same face remained masked or no-masked throughout the survey. Results revealed that, when compared to no-masked faces, masked happy faces appeared less happy. Face masks did not negatively impact the ratings of other characteristics.
Participants were better at judging the sex of masked faces. Masked faces also appeared younger, more trustworthy, more attractive, and more approachable. Therefore, face masks did not always result in unfavorable ratings. An additional post hoc modeling revealed that trustworthiness and attractiveness ratings for masked faces predicted the same trait ratings for no-masked faces.
However, approachability ratings for no-masked faces predicted the same trait ratings for masked faces. Future directions were proposed to expand the research. The face communicates several characteristics about a person. These characteristics can be invariant and stable across time, such as the sex and age Brown and Perrett, ; Nkengne et al. Characteristics can convey trait-like information like attractiveness, trustworthiness, and approachability Perrett et al.
In some cases, the sex and age of a face also influence how attractive the face looks. Explicitly, feminine and younger faces appear more attractive Korthase and Trenholme, ; Rhodes et al. Facial expressions can also communicate certain characteristics about a person.
