Mask wearing provides psychological ease but does not affect facial expression intensity estimation

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Sociology
• Public Health

Background:

• Face mask usage surged globally during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Japanese culture, being collectivistic, already normalized mask-wearing for social conformity.
• Masks can serve as a self-protective measure against perceived negative social evaluation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the impact of wearing a face mask on emotion processing and social pressure.
• To test the hypothesis that masks reduce negative feelings associated with social evaluation.
• To examine if mask-wearing affects the perception of emotion intensity.

Main Methods:

• The study examined the psychological effects of mask-wearing in a Japanese context.
• Participants' emotional responses and perception of facial expressions were assessed.
• The impact of mask-wearing on social pressure and emotion intensity recognition was analyzed.

Main Results:

• Findings confirmed that wearing a face mask significantly reduced negative feelings stemming from social pressure.
• No significant changes were observed in the performance of emotion intensity recognition.
• The null result for emotion recognition may be due to small effect sizes or individual state variability.

Conclusions:

• Face masks can mitigate negative emotions related to social pressure, particularly in collectivistic societies.
• Mask-wearing's effect on emotion intensity perception requires further investigation, possibly across diverse cultural contexts.
• Future research should explore cross-cultural differences in the psychological impact of mask-wearing.