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Reading Emotions in Faces With and Without Masks Is Relatively Independent of Extended Exposure and Individual Difference Variables

The ability to read emotions in faces helps humans efficiently assess social situations. We tested how this ability is affected by aspects of familiarization with face masks and personality, with a focus on emotional intelligence (measured with an ability test, the MSCEIT, and a self-report scale, t...

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Autores principales: Carbon, Claus-Christian, Held, Marco Jürgen, Schütz, Astrid
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8967961/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35369259
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.856971
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author Carbon, Claus-Christian
Held, Marco Jürgen
Schütz, Astrid
author_facet Carbon, Claus-Christian
Held, Marco Jürgen
Schütz, Astrid
author_sort Carbon, Claus-Christian
collection PubMed
description The ability to read emotions in faces helps humans efficiently assess social situations. We tested how this ability is affected by aspects of familiarization with face masks and personality, with a focus on emotional intelligence (measured with an ability test, the MSCEIT, and a self-report scale, the SREIS). To address aspects of the current pandemic situation, we used photos of not only faces per se but also of faces that were partially covered with face masks. The sample (N = 49), the size of which was determined by an a priori power test, was recruited in Germany and consisted of healthy individuals of different ages [M = 24.8 (18–64) years]. Participants assessed the emotional expressions displayed by six different faces determined by a 2 (sex) × 3 (age group: young, medium, and old) design. Each person was presented with six different emotional displays (angry, disgusted, fearful, happy, neutral, and sad) with or without a face mask. Accuracy and confidence were lower with masks—in particular for the emotion disgust (very often misinterpreted as anger) but also for happiness, anger, and sadness. When comparing the present data collected in July 2021 with data from a different sample collected in May 2020, when people first started to familiarize themselves with face masks in Western countries during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, we did not detect an improvement in performance. There were no effects of participants’ emotional intelligence, sex, or age regarding their accuracy in assessing emotional states in faces for unmasked or masked faces.
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spelling pubmed-89679612022-04-01 Reading Emotions in Faces With and Without Masks Is Relatively Independent of Extended Exposure and Individual Difference Variables Carbon, Claus-Christian Held, Marco Jürgen Schütz, Astrid Front Psychol Psychology The ability to read emotions in faces helps humans efficiently assess social situations. We tested how this ability is affected by aspects of familiarization with face masks and personality, with a focus on emotional intelligence (measured with an ability test, the MSCEIT, and a self-report scale, the SREIS). To address aspects of the current pandemic situation, we used photos of not only faces per se but also of faces that were partially covered with face masks. The sample (N = 49), the size of which was determined by an a priori power test, was recruited in Germany and consisted of healthy individuals of different ages [M = 24.8 (18–64) years]. Participants assessed the emotional expressions displayed by six different faces determined by a 2 (sex) × 3 (age group: young, medium, and old) design. Each person was presented with six different emotional displays (angry, disgusted, fearful, happy, neutral, and sad) with or without a face mask. Accuracy and confidence were lower with masks—in particular for the emotion disgust (very often misinterpreted as anger) but also for happiness, anger, and sadness. When comparing the present data collected in July 2021 with data from a different sample collected in May 2020, when people first started to familiarize themselves with face masks in Western countries during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, we did not detect an improvement in performance. There were no effects of participants’ emotional intelligence, sex, or age regarding their accuracy in assessing emotional states in faces for unmasked or masked faces. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-03-17 /pmc/articles/PMC8967961/ /pubmed/35369259 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.856971 Text en Copyright © 2022 Carbon, Held and Schütz. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Carbon, Claus-Christian
Held, Marco Jürgen
Schütz, Astrid
Reading Emotions in Faces With and Without Masks Is Relatively Independent of Extended Exposure and Individual Difference Variables
title Reading Emotions in Faces With and Without Masks Is Relatively Independent of Extended Exposure and Individual Difference Variables
title_full Reading Emotions in Faces With and Without Masks Is Relatively Independent of Extended Exposure and Individual Difference Variables
title_fullStr Reading Emotions in Faces With and Without Masks Is Relatively Independent of Extended Exposure and Individual Difference Variables
title_full_unstemmed Reading Emotions in Faces With and Without Masks Is Relatively Independent of Extended Exposure and Individual Difference Variables
title_short Reading Emotions in Faces With and Without Masks Is Relatively Independent of Extended Exposure and Individual Difference Variables
title_sort reading emotions in faces with and without masks is relatively independent of extended exposure and individual difference variables
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8967961/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35369259
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.856971
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