Communicating and reading emotion with masked faces in the Covid era: A short review of the literature

Face masks have proven to be key to slowing down the SARS-Cov2 virus spread in the COVID-19 pandemic context. However, wearing face masks is not devoid of side-effects, at both the physical and psychosocial levels. In particular, masks hinder emotion reading from facial expressions as they hide a significant part of the face. This disturbs both holistic and featural processing of facial expressions and, therefore, impairs emotion recog-nition, and influences many aspects of human social behavior. Communication in general is disrupted by face masks, as they modify the wearer's voice and prevent the audience from using lip reading or other non-verbal cues for speech comprehension. Individuals suffering from psychiatric conditions with impairment of commu-nication, are at higher risk of distress because masks increase their difficulties to read emotions from faces. The identification and acknowledgement of these side-effects on communication are necessary because they war-rant further work on adaptive solutions that will help foster the use of face masks by the greatest number.

Automated summary

Face masks are effective in slowing down the spread of the SARS-Cov2 virus during the COVID-19 pandemic, but they have side effects on both physical and psychosocial levels. They hinder emotion reading and communication, especially for individuals with psychiatric conditions. It is important to acknowledge these side effects and work on adaptive solutions to encourage widespread use of face masks.