Effect of Face Masks on Interpersonal Communication During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Mheidly, Nour; Fares, Mohamad Y.; Zalzale, Hussein; Fares, Jawad

doi:10.3389/fpubh.2020.582191

Cited by 158 publications

(147 citation statements)

References 16 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

134

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Furthermore, in the long run, wearing the mask in some subjects could induce the need to increase the vocal effort in order to make up both for the reduction of intensity of the voice and for the lack of the normal and important nonverbal language (kinetic facial expression) that contributes to communication. 20,21 Vocal effort manifests as a series of changes to the voice signal, including those that can be quantified by amplitude-, time-, and spectral-based measures. 22 Effortful voice production is a critical component of voice disorders and is considered to be a component of vocal hyperfunction.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Voice Differences When Wearing and Not Wearing a Surgical Mask

et al. 2023

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The purpose of our study was to investigate the impact of surgical mask on some vocal parameters such as F0, vocal intensity, jitter, shimmer and harmonics-to-noise ratio in order to understand how surgical mask can affect voice and verbal communication in adults. Methods. The study was carried out on a selected group of 60 healthy subjects. All subjects were trained to voice a vocal sample of a sustained /a/, at a conversational voice intensity for the Maximum Phonation Time (MPT), wearing the surgical mask and then without wearing the surgical mask. Voice samples were recorded directly in Praat. Results. There were no statistically significant differences in any acoustic parameter between the masked and unmasked condition. There was a non-significant decrease in vocal intensity in 65% of the subjects while wearing a surgical mask. Conclusions. The statistical comparison carried out between all the acoustic voice parameters observed, extracted wearing and not wearing a surgical mask did not reveal any significant statistical difference. Most of the subjects, after wearing the surgical mask, presented a decrease in vocal intensity measured. Our conclusion was that wearing a mask is likely to induce the unconscious need to increase the vocal effort, resulting over time in a greater risk of developing functional dysphonia. The reduction of intensity can affect also social interaction and speech audibility, especially for individuals with hearing loss.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Voice Differences When Wearing and Not Wearing a Surgical Mask

et al. 2023

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Research clarifying how face masks impact emotion communication could inform interventions to promote mask wearing and facilitate global behavioral change in response to COVID-19 and future pandemics (17). Some individuals report not wearing masks because they experience difficulties communicating when masked (18) (19). However, little research has examined to what extent-and how-masks may influence facial emotion communication.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Face masks influence emotion judgments of facial expressions: A drift-diffusion model

Wc¹,

Haque²,

B³

et al. 2021

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Face masks slow the spread of SARS-CoV-2, but it has been unknown whether masks influence how individuals communicate emotion through facial expressions. Masks could influence how accurately—or how quickly—individuals perceive expressions, and how rapidly they accumulate evidence for emotion. Over two independent pre-registered studies, conducted three and six months into the COVID-19 pandemic, participants judged expressions of 6 emotions (anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, surprise) with the lower or upper face “masked” or unmasked. Participants in Study 1 (N = 228) identified expressions above chance with lower face masks. However, they were less likely—and slower—to correctly identify these expressions versus without masks, and they accumulated evidence for emotion more slowly—via decreased drift rate in drift-diffusion modeling. This pattern replicated and intensified three months later in Study 2 (N = 264). These data could inform interventions to promote mask wearing by addressing concerns with emotion communication.

show abstract

“…In those cases, the use of gestures and written language provides visual information that can be a helpful source of guidance to enhance auditory comprehension. Also, the use of eyebrows or upper cheeks mimic movements can be helpful in enhancing the emotional messages connected to the speech [ 20 ]. Only a face-to-face talk allows a person to optimize reading facial expression and catching the visual cues and gestures provided by the speaker.…”

Section: The Best Way To Enhance Speech Intelligibility With Face Masmentioning

confidence: 99%

How great is the negative impact of masking and social distancing and how can we enhance communication skills in the elderly people?

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

During COVID-19 pandemic, protective measures such as social distancing and face masks posed a challenge in daily communication, in this context the elderly are one of the most at risk categories as widely exposed to hearing loss. This article focuses on how the COVID-19 pandemic affected verbal communication, especially on those people that even in normal conditions present an increased difficulty in speech perception. Special attention has been paid to hearing aids and cochlear implant users, these devices indeed can be affected by a speech intelligibility reduction and could be uncomfortable if used together with face masks. Possible alternatives and solutions will be proposed to reduce the negative impacts of face coverings on communication, to enhance speech intelligibility and to manage wearability of hearing rehabilitation devices.

show abstract

Effect of Face Masks on Interpersonal Communication During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Cited by 158 publications

References 16 publications

Voice Differences When Wearing and Not Wearing a Surgical Mask

Voice Differences When Wearing and Not Wearing a Surgical Mask

Face masks influence emotion judgments of facial expressions: A drift-diffusion model

How great is the negative impact of masking and social distancing and how can we enhance communication skills in the elderly people?

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About