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Face coverings increase apparent honesty and cooperativeness.

ABSTRACT: People readily make inferences about trait-like characteristics of another person's face. Since the recent global COVID-19 pandemic, the widespread use of hygienic face masks has led to large proportions of the face being covered. We investigated the effect of face masks on the inference of prosocially relevant characteristics, namely cooperativeness and honesty. Portraits of participants of previous studies from which we knew their "true" prosocial tendencies served as stimuli. These facial stimuli were presented once with and once without a hygienic face mask to 60 naïve participants who rated the faces for cooperativeness and honesty. Results revealed that wearing face masks made people generally appear more cooperative and more honest than without a mask, but that these ratings were unrelated to the true prosocial tendencies of these people. Together, these findings have important implications for social interactions, particularly in contexts where nonverbal communication is essential, such as in healthcare settings, job interviews, and social gatherings.

SUBMITTER: Lobmaier JS

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10724122 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Face coverings increase apparent honesty and cooperativeness.

Lobmaier Janek S JS Knoch Daria D

Scientific reports 20231215 1

People readily make inferences about trait-like characteristics of another person's face. Since the recent global COVID-19 pandemic, the widespread use of hygienic face masks has led to large proportions of the face being covered. We investigated the effect of face masks on the inference of prosocially relevant characteristics, namely cooperativeness and honesty. Portraits of participants of previous studies from which we knew their "true" prosocial tendencies served as stimuli. These facial sti ...[more]

PMID: 38102181

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Project description:BackgroundFace coverings constitute an important strategy for containing pandemics, such as COVID-19. Infection from airborne respiratory viruses including Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) can occur in at least three modes; tiny and/or dried aerosols (typically < 1.0 μm) generated through multiple mechanisms including talking, breathing, singing, large droplets (> 0.5 μm) generated during coughing and sneezing, and macro drops transmitted via fomites. While there is a growing number of studies looking at the performance of household materials against some of these situations, to date, there has not been any systematic characterization of household materials against all three modes.MethodsA three-step methodology was developed and used to characterize the performance of 21 different household materials with various material compositions (e.g. cotton, polyester, polypropylene, cellulose and blends) using submicron sodium chloride aerosols, water droplets, and mucous mimicking macro droplets over an aerosol-droplet size range of ~ 20 nm to 0.6 cm.ResultsExcept for one thousand-thread-count cotton, most single-layered materials had filtration efficiencies < 20% for sub-micron solid aerosols. However, several of these materials stopped > 80% of larger droplets, even at sneeze-velocities of up to 1700 cm/s. Three or four layers of the same material, or combination materials, would be required to stop macro droplets from permeating out or into the face covering. Such materials can also be boiled for reuse.ConclusionFour layers of loosely knit or woven fabrics independent of the composition (e.g. cotton, polyester, nylon or blends) are likely to be effective source controls. One layer of tightly woven fabrics combined with multiple layers of loosely knit or woven fabrics in addition to being source controls can have sub-micron filtration efficiencies > 40% and may offer some protection to the wearer. However, the pressure drop across such fabrics can be high (> 100 Pa).

Dataset Information

Face coverings increase apparent honesty and cooperativeness.

Publications

Face coverings increase apparent honesty and cooperativeness.

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