Cultural differences in recognizing emotions of masked faces

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Cross-cultural psychology
• Social psychology

Background:

• The global pandemic necessitated widespread mask-wearing, impacting social interactions.
• Previous research indicates face masks impair emotion recognition, particularly in Western populations.
• Cultural differences exist in facial expression decoding, suggesting varied mask effects.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate cultural differences in the effect of face masks on emotion recognition.
• To compare emotion recognition accuracy between American and Japanese participants with and without masks.

Main Methods:

• A preregistered study involved 203 American and 209 Japanese participants.
• Participants identified emotions (happy, fearful, angry, sad, disgust, neutral) from faces with and without masks.
• Cross-cultural comparison of recognition accuracy was performed.

Main Results:

• Significant cultural differences were observed in emotion recognition with and without masks.
• Face masks reduced the accuracy of recognizing happiness in Americans, but not in Japanese participants.
• Findings support cultural variations in facial expression processing strategies.

Conclusions:

• The impact of face masks on emotion recognition is modulated by cultural factors and specific emotions.
• Cultural differences in decoding strategies influence how masks affect perception.
• This study underscores the importance of considering cultural context in mask-related communication challenges.