In Masks we Trust: Explicit and Implicit Reactions to Masked Faces Vary by Political Orientation

Ingram, Gordon P. D.; Chuquichambi, Erick G.; Jiménez‐Leal, William; Rosa, Antonio Olivera-La

doi:10.31234/osf.io/9d4eu

Cited by 5 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…We know of only one unpublished study that has investigated approach-avoidance responses to maskwearing faces (Ingram et al, 2021). The results showed an approach bias toward mask-wearing faces in a large sample, but they do not provide any insight on what attitudes might relate to this bias.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 81%

Self-reported mask-related worrying reduces relative avoidance bias toward unmasked faces in individuals with low Covid19 anxiety syndrome

et al. 2021

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Facial masks have become and may remain ubiquitous. Though important for preventing infection, they may also serve as a reminder of the risks of disease. Thus, they may either act as cues for threat, priming avoidance-related behavior, or as cues for a safe interaction, priming social approach. To distinguish between these possibilities, we assessed implicit and explicit evaluations of masked individuals as well as avoidance bias toward relatively unsafe interactions with unmasked individuals in an approach-avoidance task in an online study. We further assessed Covid19 anxiety and specific attitudes toward mask-wearing, including mask effectiveness and desirability, hindrance of communication from masks, aesthetic appeal of masks, and mask-related worrying. Across one sample of younger (18–35 years, N = 147) and one of older adults (60+ years, N = 150), we found neither an average approach nor avoidance bias toward mask-wearing compared to unmasked individuals in the indirect behavior measurement task. However, across the combined sample, self-reported mask-related worrying correlated with reduced avoidance tendencies toward unmasked individuals when Covid19 anxiety was low, but not when it was high. This relationship was specific to avoidance tendencies and was not observed in respect to explicit or implicit preference for mask-wearing individuals. We conclude that unsafe interaction styles may be reduced by targeting mask-related worrying with public interventions, in particular for populations that otherwise have low generalized Covid19 anxiety.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 81%

Self-reported mask-related worrying reduces relative avoidance bias toward unmasked faces in individuals with low Covid19 anxiety syndrome

et al. 2021

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“…Both former President Donald Trump and conservative media outlets have downplayed the need for and efficacy of various pandemic mitigation measures, including mask-wearing (Calvillo et al 2020;Yamey and Gonsalves 2020). As a result, Republicans (Ingram et al 2020;Milosh et al N.d.) and conservatives (Utych 2021) are considerably less likely to wear masks than Democrats and liberals and often resist messages encouraging them to do so (Gelfand et al 2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Partisanship Unmasked? The Role of Politics and Social Norms in COVID-19 Mask-Wearing Behavior

Carey

Nyhan²,

Phillips³

et al. 2022

J Exp Polit Sci

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Public health officials have faced resistance in their efforts to promote mask-wearing to counter the spread of COVID-19. One approach to promoting behavior change is to alert people to the fact that a behavior is common (a descriptive norm). However, partisan differences in pandemic mitigation behavior mean that Americans may be especially (in)sensitive to information about behavioral norms depending on the party affiliation of the group in question. In July–August 2020, we tested the effects of providing information to respondents about how many Americans, co-partisans, or out-partisans report wearing masks regularly on both mask-wearing intentions and on the perceived effectiveness of masks. Learning that a majority of Americans report wearing masks regularly increases mask-wearing intentions and perceived effectiveness, though the effects of this information are not distinguishable from other treatments.

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Facial impression of trustworthiness biases statement credibility unless suppressed by facemask

et al. 2022

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The impression of trustworthiness based on someone’s facial appearance biases our subsequent behavior toward that subject in a variety of contexts. In this study, we investigated whether facial trustworthiness also biases the credibility of utterances associated with that face (H1). We explored whether this bias is mitigated by utterances eliciting reasoning, i.e. explanations (as opposed to factual statements; H2). Moreover, we hypothesized that overimposing facemasks on those faces could enhance/reduce utterance credibility due to social value of mask-wearing (H3), and that facemasks could counter the putative credibility bias introduced by facial trustworthiness (H4). If so, this may be either because facemasks remove the visual information necessary for trustworthiness impression (H4a), or because information is less salient, although it can be retrieved under different circumstances (H4b). An online study (N = 159) was conducted to test these hypotheses. In the first task, subjects saw 48 facial pictures coupled with one utterance and judged the truthfulness/falsity of this utterance. In the second task, they saw again 16 of the faces from the previous tasks and were asked to recall whether the associated utterance was true or false. Findings from the first task support H1 and H4, but not H2 and H3. However, in the second task, where the face is the only available cue, the credibility-mitigation bias exerted by facemask disappears, supporting H4b over H4a. Our results confirm the pervasivity of facial trustworthiness impressions in social cognition, and suggest that facemask can mitigate them, or at least their salience.

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In Masks we Trust: Explicit and Implicit Reactions to Masked Faces Vary by Political Orientation

Cited by 5 publications

References 44 publications

Self-reported mask-related worrying reduces relative avoidance bias toward unmasked faces in individuals with low Covid19 anxiety syndrome

Self-reported mask-related worrying reduces relative avoidance bias toward unmasked faces in individuals with low Covid19 anxiety syndrome

Partisanship Unmasked? The Role of Politics and Social Norms in COVID-19 Mask-Wearing Behavior

Facial impression of trustworthiness biases statement credibility unless suppressed by facemask

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