Masks are much more likely to disrupt facial perception - study
Ben-Gurion University researchers conduct a recent study that evaluates how masks disrupt facial recognition and perception.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFUpdated: DECEMBER 23, 2020 09:31Shoppers wear face masks and walk around a fashion shopping center in Ashdod, as restrictions over the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) ease around Israel, May 5, 2020. (photo credit: AMIR COHEN/REUTERS)
According to recent findings that were published in the journal Scientific Reports, the ability to recognize people (more specifically those you are acquainted with) wearing masks has often presented an unexpected challenge during the pandemic, as a new study by researchers from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) in Israel and York University in Canada reveals the impact of this predicament and its significant repercussions."For those of you who don't always recognize a friend or acquaintance wearing a mask, you are not alone,” said Prof. Tzvi Ganel, head of the Laboratory for Visual Perception and Action at the BGU Department of Psychology, and Prof. Erez Freud, from York University in Toronto. The researchers continue to say that "faces are among the most informative and significant visual stimuli in human perception and play a unique role in communicative, social daily interactions."The researchers conducted the study online with nearly 500 people by using a modified version of the Cambridge Face Memory Test, which is used to assess facial perception and recognition. The test used masked and unmasked faces.Prof. Galia Avidan, an expert on facial recognition and perception and member of the BGU Department of Psychology and the Department of Cognitive and Brain Sciences, said that "face masks could be even more challenging to people whose face recognition skills are not ideal to begin with and cause greater impairment.”In conclusion, the success rate of identifying someone wearing a mask was reduced by 15%, highlighting the possibility of making errors in correctly recognizing people that we know. Researchers involved with the study claim we are now forced to look at eyes, cheeks or any other visible signs to correctly recognize the other individual.“Given that mask wearing has rapidly become an important norm in countries around the globe, future research should explore the social and psychological implications of wearing masks on human behavior,” Ganel says.These new circumstances could have significant effects on activities of daily life, including education, social interactions and communication within the workforce.Other researchers included Freud, who led the study, Andreja Stajduhar and Prof. Shayna Rosenbaum of York University.This study was supported by the Israel Science Foundation and by the Vision Science to Applications program funded by the Canada First Research Excellence Fund, and by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.
