Drift–diffusion modeling reveals that masked faces are preconceived as unfriendly
Abstract During the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of face masks has become a daily routine. Studies have shown that face masks increase the ambiguity of facial expressions which not only affects (the development of) emotion recognition, but also interferes with social interaction and judgement. To disa...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Nature Portfolio
2023-10-01
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| Series: | Scientific Reports |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-44162-y |
| _version_ | 1797452646540378112 |
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| author | Martijn J. Mulder Franziska Prummer David Terburg J. Leon Kenemans |
| author_facet | Martijn J. Mulder Franziska Prummer David Terburg J. Leon Kenemans |
| author_sort | Martijn J. Mulder |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract During the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of face masks has become a daily routine. Studies have shown that face masks increase the ambiguity of facial expressions which not only affects (the development of) emotion recognition, but also interferes with social interaction and judgement. To disambiguate facial expressions, we rely on perceptual (stimulus-driven) as well as preconceptual (top-down) processes. However, it is unknown which of these two mechanisms accounts for the misinterpretation of masked expressions. To investigate this, we asked participants (N = 136) to decide whether ambiguous (morphed) facial expressions, with or without a mask, were perceived as friendly or unfriendly. To test for the independent effects of perceptual and preconceptual biases we fitted a drift–diffusion model (DDM) to the behavioral data of each participant. Results show that face masks induce a clear loss of information leading to a slight perceptual bias towards friendly choices, but also a clear preconceptual bias towards unfriendly choices for masked faces. These results suggest that, although face masks can increase the perceptual friendliness of faces, people have the prior preconception to interpret masked faces as unfriendly. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T15:11:39Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-56fbc9e6fcc049fc80d7653064bc473f |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2045-2322 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T15:11:39Z |
| publishDate | 2023-10-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Scientific Reports |
| spelling | doaj.art-56fbc9e6fcc049fc80d7653064bc473f2023-11-26T13:20:51ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222023-10-0113111110.1038/s41598-023-44162-yDrift–diffusion modeling reveals that masked faces are preconceived as unfriendlyMartijn J. Mulder0Franziska Prummer1David Terburg2J. Leon Kenemans3Department of Experimental Psychology, Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht UniversitySchool of Computing and Communications, Lancaster UniversityDepartment of Experimental Psychology, Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht UniversityDepartment of Experimental Psychology, Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht UniversityAbstract During the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of face masks has become a daily routine. Studies have shown that face masks increase the ambiguity of facial expressions which not only affects (the development of) emotion recognition, but also interferes with social interaction and judgement. To disambiguate facial expressions, we rely on perceptual (stimulus-driven) as well as preconceptual (top-down) processes. However, it is unknown which of these two mechanisms accounts for the misinterpretation of masked expressions. To investigate this, we asked participants (N = 136) to decide whether ambiguous (morphed) facial expressions, with or without a mask, were perceived as friendly or unfriendly. To test for the independent effects of perceptual and preconceptual biases we fitted a drift–diffusion model (DDM) to the behavioral data of each participant. Results show that face masks induce a clear loss of information leading to a slight perceptual bias towards friendly choices, but also a clear preconceptual bias towards unfriendly choices for masked faces. These results suggest that, although face masks can increase the perceptual friendliness of faces, people have the prior preconception to interpret masked faces as unfriendly.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-44162-y |
| spellingShingle | Martijn J. Mulder Franziska Prummer David Terburg J. Leon Kenemans Drift–diffusion modeling reveals that masked faces are preconceived as unfriendly Scientific Reports |
| title | Drift–diffusion modeling reveals that masked faces are preconceived as unfriendly |
| title_full | Drift–diffusion modeling reveals that masked faces are preconceived as unfriendly |
| title_fullStr | Drift–diffusion modeling reveals that masked faces are preconceived as unfriendly |
| title_full_unstemmed | Drift–diffusion modeling reveals that masked faces are preconceived as unfriendly |
| title_short | Drift–diffusion modeling reveals that masked faces are preconceived as unfriendly |
| title_sort | drift diffusion modeling reveals that masked faces are preconceived as unfriendly |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-44162-y |
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