Masking our emotions: Emotion recognition and perceived intensity differ by race and use of medical masks.

ABSTRACT: Although medical masks have played a key role in decreasing the transmission of communicable disease, they simultaneously reduce the availability of nonverbal cues fundamental to social interaction. In the present study, we determined the collective impact of medical masks on emotional expression recognition and perceived intensity as a function of actor race. Participants completed an emotional expression recognition task involving stimuli with or without medical masks. Across six basic emotional facial expressions, medical masks were associated with significantly more emotional expression recognition errors. Overall, the effects associated with race varied depending on the emotion and appearance of masks. Whereas recognition accuracy was higher for White relative to Black actors for ange

SUBMITTER: Li AY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10246819 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature