Masks Are Not Effective At Hiding A Person's Emotions, Expert Reveals

Wearing masks may have provided some relief to many individuals because of the belief that concealing more than half of their faces may hide what they truly feel. As it turns out, such thinking may not be exactly correct after all as experts claim, per CNN, that it is still possible to see your emotions beneath the mask.

Ursula Hess, a communications expert and a professor of social and organizational psychology at the Humboldt University of Berlin, also revealed why face coverings may not be very effective in hiding emotions.

Communicating Emotions

Hess says it is incorrect to think that face coverings can make it harder for people to interact. She told CNN that feelings are expressed in several ways with many of them not relying on the lower part of the face.

An emotion, according to the psychology professor, may range from a subtle expression, like the raising of an eyebrow, to explicit ones, such as hitting the table with your fist. She added that smiles need not be seen as they can be heard through the way it alters the voice.

Expressed By The Eyes

There are many people, per Dr. Hess, who are good at detecting a variety of emotions expressed by the upper section of the face, particularly the eyes. She cited an assessment developed by British psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen during the 1990s that help the expression by those suffering from autism.

Called The Reading the Mind in the Eyes test, it measures how well a person can read the feelings of others. Participants are asked to look at photos of different spots around the eyes and provide the proper emotional states. The test proved that many people are able to identify even subtle mental states such as reflectiveness just by looking at the eyes’ expression changes.

Hess said that the eyes are often drawn toward any activity and, if the lower part of the face is covered, the focus will be on the upper face. She explained that most people would see the whole upper region and not just the eyes. This includes the wrinkles between the eyes and on the forehead. The psychology professor added that even cheeks puff up when people smile.

Harder To Decode

The social and organizational psychology expert, however, admitted there are hard-to-decode emotions, particularly if part of the face, like the mouth, is concealed. These include surprise and fear, with the upper face section reacting similarly to a smile.