The impact of briefly observing faces in opaque facial masks on emotion recognition and empathic concern.

Since the outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 in 2019, there have been global public health initiatives that have advocated for the community use of face masks to reduce spread of the virus. Although the community use of facial coverings has been deemed essential for public health, there have been calls for enquiries to ascertain how face masks may impact non-verbal methods of communication. This study aimed to ascertain how the brief observations of faces in opaque facial coverings could impact facial emotion recognition.