Face masks present a new challenge to face identification (here matching) and emotion recognition in Western cultures. Here, we present the results of three experiments that test the effect of masks, and also the effect of sunglasses (an occlusion that individuals tend to have more experienced with) on (i) familiar face matching, (ii) unfamiliar face matching and (iii) emotion categorization. Occlusion reduced accuracy in all three tasks, with most errors in the mask condition; however, there was little difference in performance for faces in masks compared with faces in sunglasses. Super-recognizers, people who are highly skilled at matching unconcealed faces, were impaired by occlusion, but at the group level, performed with higher accuracy than controls on all tasks. Results inform psychology theory with implications for everyday interactions, security and policing in a mask-wearing society.
University of Lincoln, College of Social Science Research
Eilidh Noyes, University of Huddersfield, Department of Psychology
Josh P. Davis, University of Greenwich, School of Human Sciences
Nikolay Petrov, University of Greenwich, School of Human Sciences
Katie L. H. Gray, University of Reading, School of Psychology
Kay L. Ritchie, University of Lincoln, School of Psychology