Mask-wearing improves the performance on a test that measures the capacity to infer other people mental states from their eye gaze

Trainin, N., & Yeshurun, Y. (2021). Reading the mind with a mask? Improvement in reading the mind in the eyes during the COVID-19 pandemic. Emotion. Nov 2021. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0001014

Abstract: The necessity to wear facial masks in public during the COVID-19 pandemic generated a unique situation where the eyes' importance as a visual source of information about individuals’ mental and emotional states greatly increased. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that experience in looking in interlocutor’s eyes (as a result of mask-wearing) will be correlated with enhanced performance on “reading the mind in the eyes test” (RMET). To test this, 87 participants performed an online version of the RMET at 2 different timepoints: when the mandatory mask wearing rules were put in place and a month later. We found that reported tendency to look at interlocutors' eyes, combined with experience in interacting with other people wearing masks, explained individual differences in RMET performance. Moreover, we found that individual’s tendency to look at interlocutors' eyes was correlated with change in performance in reading the mind in the eyes over this month. These results suggest that in addition to individual’s interest and motivation in understanding other’s mental state, continuous everyday experiences can result in an improved capacity for reading mental and emotional states by looking into individuals' eyes.