#Verb bubble trouble plus

However, face masks also cover, per definition, a major part of the human face, which can crucially affect social interaction.

During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, most countries and health organizations like the WHO propagated wearing face masks by early 2020 as a key strategy to reduce the spread of the severe acute respiratory syndrome 2 (SARS 2) coronavirus.įace masks not only have a direct positive medical impact in terms of preventing the virus from spreading to those who are most vulnerable ( Wu and McGoogan, 2020) they also have positive societal effects as wearing masks allows for the relaxing of other preventive measures such as strict isolation and quarantining ( Mniszewski et al., 2014). Wearing face masks 1 is recommended in many scenarios, mostly in clinical contexts, when infected by certain respiratory diseases or in times of epidemics where the risk of potential transmission through air passages has to be reduced ( Jefferson et al., 2008). We discuss compensatory actions that can keep social interaction effective (e.g., body language, gesture, and verbal communication), even when relevant visual information is crucially reduced.

#Verb bubble trouble plus

We further detected specific confusion patterns, mostly pronounced in the case of misinterpreting disgusted faces as being angry plus assessing many other emotions (e.g., happy, sad, and angry) as neutral. Lower accuracy and lower confidence in one’s own assessment of the displayed emotions indicate that emotional reading was strongly irritated by the presence of a mask. Each face was randomly presented with six different expressions ( angry, disgusted, fearful, happy, neutral, and sad) while being fully visible or partly covered by a face mask. The participants ( N = 41, calculated by an a priori power test random sample healthy persons of different ages, 18–87 years) assessed the emotional expressions displayed by 12 different faces. In the present experiment, we tested the impact of face masks on the readability of emotions. Although acceptance of such masks is increasing in the Western hemisphere, many people feel that social interaction is affected by wearing a mask.

Wearing face masks is one of the essential means to prevent the transmission of certain respiratory diseases such as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). 2Research Group EPÆG (Ergonomics, Psychological Aesthetics, Gestalt), Bamberg, Germany.1Department of General Psychology and Methodology, University of Bamberg, Bamberg, Germany.