ArticleBrain sciences2022
Wearing a Mask Shapes Interpersonal Space during COVID-19 Pandemic.
Article in Brain sciences, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Effect of face-covering use on adherence to other COVID-19 protective behaviours: A systematic review.PloS one · 2024Pooled it
- From Mandate to Choice: How Voluntary Mask Wearing Shapes Interpersonal Distance Among University Students After COVID-19.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Advances in Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience: Ten Highly Cited Articles Published inBrain sciences · 2024Article
- Perception of interpersonal distance and social distancing before and during COVID-19 pandemic.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Perceived interpersonal distance changes in young Taiwanese pre and post SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Reduction of peripersonal comfort space correlate with eating disorder symptoms in young adolescents: a network analysis approach.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
- Perceived Interpersonal Distances: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Young Taiwanese and Young Southeast Asians during the COVID-19 Pandemic.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Effects of Target Variables on Interpersonal Distance Perception for Young Taiwanese during the COVID-19 Pandemic.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Social distancing between personal belongings during the COVID-19 pandemic.F1000Research · 2023Article
- Article
- Personal space increases during the COVID-19 pandemic in response to real and virtual humans.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Social distancing norms have been promoted after the COVID-19 pandemic. In this work, we tested interpersonal space (IPS) in 107 subjects through a reaching-comfort distance estimation task. In the main experiment, subjects had to estimate the comfort and reach space between an avatar wearing or not wearing a face mask. We found that IPS was greater between avatars not wearing a mask with respect to stimuli with the mask on, while reaching space was not modulated. IPS increment in the NoMask condition with respect to the Mask condition correlated with anxiety traits, as shown with the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, rather than with transient aspects related to the pandemic situation. In the control experiment, the avatars with a mask were removed to further explore the conditioning effect provided by the presence of the facial protection in the main experiment. We found a significant difference comparing this condition with the same condition of the main experiment, namely, the distances kept between avatars not wearing a mask in the main experiment were greater than those between the same stimuli in the control experiment. This showed a contextual adaptation of IPS when elements related to the actual pandemic situation were relevant. Additionally, no significant differences were found between the control experiment and the Mask condition of the main experiment, suggesting that participants had internalized social distancing norms and wearing a mask has become the new normal. Our results highlight the tendency of people in underestimating the risk of contagion when in the presence of someone wearing a mask.
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