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

Wearing facial masks became a common practice around the world in the wake of theCOVID-19 pandemic. To understand how the partial covering of facial emotional cues mayinfluence children’s emotion recognition, this study investigated (1) whether facial masks thatcover 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 emotionrecognition. We tested children from Switzerland (N = 38) and Brazil (N = 41). Brazilrepresented longer mask exposure due to a stricter mandate during COVID-19. Children hadto choose a face displaying a specific emotion (happy, angry, or sad) when the face woreeither no cover, a facial mask, or sunglasses. The longer hours of mask exposure wereassociated with better emotion recognition. Controlling for the hours of exposure, childrenwere less likely to recognize emotions in faces that were partially hidden. Moreover,Brazilian children, who had greater exposure to masks in their daily lives, were more accuratein recognizing happy faces than Swiss children. Overall, facial masks may negatively impactchildren’s emotion recognition in the covered face. However, prolonged exposure appears tobuffer the lack of facial cues from the nose and mouth. In conclusion, restricting facial cuesdue to masks may impair kindergarten children’s emotion recognition in the short run.However, it may facilitate their broader reading of facial emotional cues in the long run.