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Category: Project

Description: The current COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically changed people’s social life: People communicate via video calls, keep distance when encountering each other and in general reduce the number of people they meet in person. Additionally, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended wearing facial masks as part of the strategy to slow down the spread. Not only adults but also children have to adapt to these different ways of interacting with others. In particular, children increasingly face situations in which parents, caregivers, and other people in their environment are obligated to wear facial masks. Various media reports debate the question of whether and how wearing masks impacts children’s emotional face recognition. So far, empirical evidence is insufficient to answer this question. Therefore, in this project, we seek to understand children’s emotional face recognition and how it is influenced by the increased time children interact with individuals wearing facial masks.