British academics have found that people look “more attractive”, wearing masks and protective medical masks.
According to the study, which was published by the British newspaper “The Guardian”, a summary of its results, researchers at Cardiff University were surprised when they discovered that men and women were judged to look better with masks, which obscure the lower half of their faces.
A researcher at Cardiff University’s School of Psychology, an expert in faces, Michael Lewis, said that research conducted before the epidemic found that medical masks “reduced attractiveness because they are associated with diseases.”
But he added, “We wanted to test whether this has changed since masks became ubiquitous, and we also wanted to understand whether the type of mask or face mask had any effect.”
And he added that the study they conducted indicated that “faces became more attractive when covered with medical masks.”
“This may be because we are used to the fact that it is health care and medical workers who wear blue masks,” Lewis explained.
He added, “At a time when we feel weak, we may find that wearing masks is reassuring, and therefore we feel more positive about those who wear them.”
According to the newspaper, “The Guardian”, the first part of the study was conducted in February 2021, and at that time the British used to wear masks in some circumstances.
In that part of the study, 43 women were asked to rate on a scale of 1 to 10 the attractiveness of pictures of men’s faces without masks, others wearing a regular cloth mask, another group wearing a blue mask, and a fourth group covering the lower part of their face with a black book.
Participants said that those who wore cloth masks were more attractive than those without masks or whose faces were partially obscured by the book, but the blue medical masks made the wearer look better.
“The findings are at odds with pre-pandemic research where it was believed that masks made people think they were sick and the person should be avoided,” Lewis said. “The epidemic has changed our psychology in how we perceive who wears masks.”
He added, “When we see a person wearing a muzzle now, we no longer believe that he has a disease and that we should stay away from him,” noting that this is related to evolutionary psychology and “why we choose our partners.”
He continued, “Illness can play a big role in partner selection. Previously, any sign of illness was a major turning point. Now we can see a shift in our psychology such that face masks no longer act as a sign of contamination or disease.”
Lewis concluded that masks could also make people more attractive because they direct attention to the eyes.
The results of the first study were published in the journal “Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications”, while a second study was conducted, in which a group of men looked at women with masks, but it has not yet been published, but Lewis said that the results are very similar.
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