ArticleCognitive research: principles and implications2022
Beyond the beauty of occlusion: medical masks increase facial attractiveness more than other face coverings.
Article in Cognitive research: principles and implications, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers.
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Who cites it
25 citing papers in PubMed.
- How environmental cues shape human face value perceptions-an exploration based on grounded theory.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Unveiling the "Less is More" paradox: How experience and cognitive filling drive attractiveness in occluded faces.Cognitive research: principles and implications · 2025Article
- Effects of Masks on the Preference of Laser Treatment during the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Japanese Population.Journal of plastic and reconstructive surgery · 2025Article
- The Crucial Role of the Eyes in Predicting Facial Attractiveness from Parts.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Masking is good, but conforming is better: The consequences of masking non-conformity within the college classroom.PloS one · 2025Article
- How facemasks shape trust in social interactions.PloS one · 2025Article
- The social factors behind the mask: contextual effects on trait impressions from faces wearing a face mask.Cognitive research: principles and implications · 2024Article
- Unveiling why race does not affect the mask effect on attractiveness: but gender and expression do.Cognitive research: principles and implications · 2024Article
- Face coverings increase apparent honesty and cooperativeness.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Mask wearing provides psychological ease but does not affect facial expression intensity estimation.Royal Society open science · 2023Article
- When less is not more: the effect of transparent masks on facial attractiveness judgment.Cognitive research: principles and implications · 2023Article
- Does wearing facial masks increase perceived facial attractiveness? An eye-tracking experiment.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- Face masks drive increased rational decision-making.Current psychology (New Brunswick, N.J.) · 2022Article
- Cultural Perspectives, Feelings and Coping Behaviors during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case Study of Romanian Students.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Incomplete faces are completed using a more average face.Cognitive research: principles and implications · 2022Article
- Faces: unmasked.British dental journal · 2022Article
- Occlusion of faces by sanitary masks improves facial attractiveness of other races.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- Robustness of the aging effect of smiling against vertical facial orientation.F1000Research · 2022Article
- Emotional context can reduce the negative impact of face masks on inferring emotions.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- The Effect of Wearing a Mask on Facial Attractiveness.Aesthetic surgery journal. Open forum · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The sanitary-mask effect (Miyazaki and Kawahara in Jpn Psychol Res 58(3):261-272, 2016) is the finding that medical face masks prompt an image of disease and thus result in lower ratings of facial attractiveness of the wearer. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, medical masks have been found to increase attractiveness (Patel et al. in Plast Reconstruct Surg Glob Open 8(8), 2020) although this could have been a general effect of occlusion. To further explore this issue, female participants were presented with a series of male faces of low or high attractiveness that were occluded with a medical mask, cloth mask, book or not occluded and asked to rate them on attractiveness. The results show that faces were considered as most attractive when covered by medical masks and significantly more attractive when occluded with cloth masks than when not occluded. Contrary to expectation, base attractiveness did not interact with the type of occlusion, suggesting that this is not simply due to occlusion of negative features. The present findings are contrary to the sanitary-mask effect and explanations in terms of social desirability, and the association of medical masks with caregiving professions is explored.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.