Study: Face Masks Make People Look More Attractive


 During the COVID-19 pandemic there have been some positives. One of the results of a study that revealed that people who use face masks look more attractive.

The survey was conducted by researchers from Cardiff University who were surprised to find that both men and women were judged to look better with masks covering the lower half of their faces.


They also found that faces covered with disposable types of surgical masks tended to be considered the most attractive.



Dr Michael Lewis, a reader from Cardiff University School of Psychology and an expert on facials, said research conducted before the pandemic had found that medical face masks reduced attractiveness because they were associated with illness or disease.


"We wanted to test whether this has changed since face coverings became ubiquitous and understand whether different types of masks have an effect," he said.


"Our study shows that faces are considered most attractive when covered by medical face masks. This may be because we are used to health workers wearing blue masks and now we associate them with people in the nursing or medical profession. At a time when we feel vulnerable, we may find that wearing a medical mask is reassuring and feels more positive towards the wearer." he continued.


The first part of the study was conducted in February 2021 in which the UK population has become accustomed to wearing masks in some circumstances. The 43 women were asked to rate on a scale of one to 10 the attractiveness of an image of a man's face without a mask, wearing a plain cloth mask, a blue medical face mask, and holding a plain black book covering the area where the mask would be hidden.


Participants said those who wore cloth masks were significantly more attractive than those who did not wear masks or whose faces were partially covered by books. But surgical masks that are only ordinary and disposable types make the wearer look better.



"The results contradict pre-pandemic research where it was thought masks make people think about illness and people should be avoided," Lewis said.


"The pandemic has changed our psychology in the way we perceive mask wearers. When we see someone wearing a mask, we no longer think 'that person has a disease, I need to stay away'.


"It has to do with evolutionary psychology and why we choose partners which we do. Disease and evidence of disease can play a huge role in mate selection - previously any cues of disease would have been very lethal."


"Now we can observe changes in our psychology so that face masks no longer act as a contamination cue." he said.



Lewis says it's also possible that masks make people more attractive because they direct attention to the eyes. He says other studies have found that covering the left or right side of the face also makes people look more attractive, in part because the brain fills in missing gaps and exaggerates the overall impact.


The results of the first study have been published in the journal Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications. A second study was conducted, in which a group of men saw masked women; it hasn't been published yet but Lewis says the results are generally the same. The researchers did not ask participants to describe their sexual orientation.

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