![]() In contrast to the problems associated with masks discussed above, there is a common belief among Japanese women that wearing a mask increases one’s attractiveness, as it occludes potentially undesirable facial features such as acne (Miyazaki & Kawahara, 2016). Masks are also customary in China as a protection from air pollution, despite concerns about their efficacy (Cherrie et al., 2018). Medical masks (sometimes referred to as surgical or sanitary masks) are routinely used for health reasons in collectivist countries such as Japan, where people have enhanced personal hygiene practices (Wada et al., 2012). ![]() Many Muslim women wear niqābs or burqas, which cover large parts of the face. While face coverings were a somewhat rare sight in Western nations, such as the UK, prior to 2020, they have been common in some cultures long before the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, research on side effects of masks has significant implications for day-to-day life, in which recognising emotions and clear communication are key to interpersonal interaction. Finally, research shows masks impair recognition of emotions (Carbon, 2020), with participants reporting lower confidence and greater patterns of confusion. Furthermore, masks prevent crucial face-to-face interactions between newborns and their primary attachment figures, which could impede early bonding (Green et al., 2020). Evidence suggests wearing masks induces perceived discomfort, impairs vocal communication (Ribeiro et al., 2020), and may be a barrier to social interaction (Hung, 2018). Notwithstanding the medical benefits, the use of masks carries costs. Despite concerns about masks eliciting a false-sense of security (Javid et al., 2020), research shows they are of paramount importance in helping to reduce the spread of COVID-19 (Howard et al., 2021), which is reflected in government policy worldwide. Since July 2020 (Rab et al., 2020), it was mandatory to wear masks covering the mouth and nose in the UK in a number of different places, for example supermarkets and on public transport-although, rules changed after June 2021. 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.Īs a result of the outbreak of the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, there has been a sharp increase in demand for protective face masks globally to prevent the spread of the virus. ![]() 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 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. 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. in Plast Reconstruct Surg Glob Open 8(8), 2020) although this could have been a general effect of occlusion. ![]() However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, medical masks have been found to increase attractiveness (Patel et al. 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. ![]()
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