Previous research showed that adults and children have difficulty recognizing faces when part of their face is obscured by a mask, such as those worn during the COVID-19 pandemic, and that it doesn\u2019t get better with time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This new series of experiments conducted at York sheds light on how face perception abilities are disrupted for the person wearing a mask, regardless of whether the person they are looking at is masked or unmasked. <\/strong>So as new Omicron sub-variants start circulating and people reach for their masks, researchers say they shouldn\u2019t be embarrassed if they start having more difficulty recognizing friends and co-workers again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe wanted to investigate the effect of wearing a mask on face perception \u2013 something that hasn\u2019t been explored before as far as we know \u2013 to see how the perception abilities of a masked observer changes in relation to others,\u201d says Assistant Professor Erez Freud<\/strong><\/a> of York\u2019s Faculty of Health, who co-authored the study with York undergraduate students Daniela Di Giammarino<\/strong> and Carmel Camilleri.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n As part of the study, there were four different experiments involving 80 participants for each who were shown non-masked and masked faces while they themselves either had a mask on or off. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The results were surprising. Wearing a mask affects the ability to recognize the faces of others. The crucial factor was not whether the presented face had a mask on or not, it was whether the participant had their mask on or off that made the difference. <\/p>\n\n\n