ArticlePloS one2022
The impact of face masks on emotion recognition performance and perception of threat.
Article in PloS one, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 40 papers.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
40 citing papers in PubMed.
- Facial Emotion Recognition Ability May Improve in Alzheimer Disease: A Pilot Study.Cognitive and behavioral neurology : official journal of the Society for Behavioral and Cognitive Neurology · 2026Trial
- Incomplete Faces Do but Masked Faces Do Not Affect Mind Perception.Psychological reports · 2026Article
- Shape information used for face identity and expression recognition is highly versatile and context specific.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- The Influence of Face Masks on Micro-Expression Recognition.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Challenges of face identification with varied mask coverage in the post COVID-19 era.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- How facemasks shape trust in social interactions.PloS one · 2025Article
- Impact of partial occlusion of the face on multisensory emotion perception: Comparison of pre- and post-COVID-19 pandemic.PloS one · 2025Article
- Pupillary responses to masked and gaze-averted faces.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Seeing emotions: an eye-tracking study of emotion recognition in deaf individuals amid facial occlusions.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Inferring social signals from the eyes in male schizophrenia.Schizophrenia (Heidelberg, Germany) · 2024Article
- 'The mirror of the soul?' Inferring sadness in the eyes.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Dimensions of Alexithymia and Identification of Emotions in Masked and Unmasked Faces.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Article
- Recognizing and Looking at Masked Emotional Faces in Alexithymia.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Effect of Face Masking on Transmission of SARS-CoV-2.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2024Article
- Development and testing of a questionnaire on the expectations and experiences with wearing face masks in inpatient and day hospitals.PloS one · 2024Article
- Declines in social-emotional skills in college students during the COVID-19 pandemic.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
- Investigating the impact of surgical masks on behavioral reactions to facial emotions in the COVID-19 era.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
- Does wearing a mask promote consumer uniqueness seeking?Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
- Face coverings increase apparent honesty and cooperativeness.Scientific reports · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Facial emotion recognition is crucial for social interaction. However, in times of a global pandemic, where wearing a face mask covering mouth and nose is widely encouraged to prevent the spread of disease, successful emotion recognition may be challenging. In the current study, we investigated whether emotion recognition, assessed by a validated emotion recognition task, is impaired for faces wearing a mask compared to uncovered faces, in a sample of 790 participants between 18 and 89 years (condition mask vs. original). In two more samples of 395 and 388 participants between 18 and 70 years, we assessed emotion recognition performance for faces that are occluded by something other than a mask, i.e., a bubble as well as only showing the upper part of the faces (condition half vs. bubble). Additionally, perception of threat for faces with and without occlusion was assessed. We found impaired emotion recognition for faces wearing a mask compared to faces without mask, for all emotions tested (anger, fear, happiness, sadness, disgust, neutral). Further, we observed that perception of threat was altered for faces wearing a mask. Upon comparison of the different types of occlusion, we found that, for most emotions and especially for disgust, there seems to be an effect that can be ascribed to the face mask specifically, both for emotion recognition performance and perception of threat. Methodological constraints as well as the importance of wearing a mask despite temporarily compromised social interaction are discussed.
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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.