Duration of Face Mask Exposure Matters: Evidence from Swiss and Brazilian Kindergartners’ Ability to Recognize Emotions

This study investigated (1) whether facial masks that cover adult faces affect 4- to 6-year-old children’s recognition of emotions in those faces, and (2) whether the duration of children’s exposure to masks is associated with emotion recognition. We tested children from Switzerland (N = 38) and Brazil (N = 41), who were exposed to facial masks to different extents during the Covid-19 pandemic. In Brazil, the more strict mask mandate resulted in longer mask exposure. Children were asked to point to the face displaying a certain emotion (happy, angry, or sad) from a selection of four faces displaying different emotions. Depending on the condition, actors either wore no cover, a facial mask, or sunglasses. Results showed that children recognized emotions in the no cover and sunglasses condition better than in the mask condition. For the Brazilian children, this was the case for all emotions, whereas, for the Swiss children, only for happiness and sadness. Yet regardless of the country, the more hours per week children were exposed to masks, the better they recognized emotions in general, including in uncovered faces. These findings suggest that a facial mask covering a face negatively impacts children’s emotion recognition in that specific face. However, with prolonged exposure to masks, children appear to adapt to and compensate for the lack of facial cues from the nose and mouth, especially for happiness. Hence, masks may impair kindergarten children’s emotion recognition in the short run but may benefit their broader reading of facial emotional cues in the long run.