The Effect of Surgical Masks on the Featural and Configural Processing of Emotions

Natale Maiorana, Michelangelo Dini, Barbara Poletti, Sofia Tagini, Maria Rita Reitano, Gabriella Pravettoni, Alberto Priori and Roberta Ferrucci
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Natale Maiorana: Aldo Ravelli Research Center for Neurotechnology and Experimental Brain Therapeutics, Department of Health Science, University of Milan, Via A. di Rudinì, 8, 20142 Milan, Italy
Michelangelo Dini: Aldo Ravelli Research Center for Neurotechnology and Experimental Brain Therapeutics, Department of Health Science, University of Milan, Via A. di Rudinì, 8, 20142 Milan, Italy
Barbara Poletti: Department of Neurology and Laboratory of Neuroscience, IRCCS Istituto Auxologico Italiano, Piazzale Brescia, 20, 20149 Milan, Italy
Sofia Tagini: Department of Neurology and Laboratory of Neuroscience, IRCCS Istituto Auxologico Italiano, Piazzale Brescia, 20, 20149 Milan, Italy
Maria Rita Reitano: ASST Santi Paolo e Carlo, San Paolo University Hospital, Via A. di Rudinì, 8, 20142 Milan, Italy
Gabriella Pravettoni: Department of Oncology and Hematology-Oncology, University of Milan, Via Festa del Perdono, 7, 20122 Milan, Italy
Alberto Priori: Aldo Ravelli Research Center for Neurotechnology and Experimental Brain Therapeutics, Department of Health Science, University of Milan, Via A. di Rudinì, 8, 20142 Milan, Italy
Roberta Ferrucci: Aldo Ravelli Research Center for Neurotechnology and Experimental Brain Therapeutics, Department of Health Science, University of Milan, Via A. di Rudinì, 8, 20142 Milan, Italy

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 4, 1-12

Abstract: From the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of surgical masks became widespread. However, they occlude an important part of the face and make it difficult to decode and interpret other people’s emotions. To clarify the effect of surgical masks on configural and featural processing, participants completed a facial emotion recognition task to discriminate between happy, sad, angry, and neutral faces. Stimuli included fully visible faces, masked faces, and a cropped photo of the eyes or mouth region. Occlusion due to the surgical mask affects emotion recognition for sadness, anger, and neutral faces, although no significative differences were found in happiness recognition. Our findings suggest that happiness is recognized predominantly via featural processing.

Keywords: COVID-19; surgical mask; emotion recognition; alexithymia; face processing; featural processing; configural processing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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