As people navigate a masked world, they’ll need to focus more on the eyes and voice to connect with those around them, a psychologist argues.
With faces covered to help reduce the spread of COVID-19, some of the facial cues that people rely on to connect with others—such as a smile that shows support—are also obscured.
This will be particularly true for North Americans, says Jeanne Tsai, a professor of psychology at Stanford University and director of the Stanford Culture and Emotion Lab, who value high energy emotions—such as excitement or enthusiasm, which are associated with big, open smiles—more than East Asians do.
Here, Tsai shares how some of those cultural differences may explain why some people resist face coverings more than others. For example, research has shown that North Americans judge people with bigger smiles to be friendlier and more trustworthy than East Asians, so face coverings may make it harder for them to connect with strangers, she says.
Moreover, Tsai’s research has shown that these cultural differences have consequences for things like resource sharing—North Americans give more to people who show bigger smiles than do East Asians. This may make North Americans less likely to share with people whose faces are covered, at a time when sharing is critical, according to Tsai.
However, understanding these differences can also help guide workarounds to overcome barriers to connection, Tsai says, pointing to the smiling photos that healthcare workers at Stanford Hospital taped over their personal protective equipment to help their patients feel more at ease as an example.
Here, Tsai digs i ..
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