INTRO
How many times have you had to pull your mask down slightly just so that your cashier could understand what you’re saying? Can we expect kids to grow up with one another with limited communication? Can we think that this period of time won’t affect our communication, as a whole, negatively? These are some of the questions that I ask you to ponder on. More than 50 countries currently mandate masks, and many of the citizens in the countries without these mandates still wear masks. Certain people in heavily polluted countries such as China are used to wearing masks to protect themselves and, in effect, may not be as affected communication-wise compared to countries newer to the practice. In addition, Women in some countries who wear veils don’t seem to have hindered communication with face coverings. However, imagine how difficult it must be for the deaf community to communicate with face coverings? This dynamic calls for further investigation.
How do we process emotions and perceptions?
According to psychologist Rebecca Brewer who studies the role of facial expressions in the way we communicate emotion at the Royal Holloway University of London, humans tend to process the face as a whole and by covering a part of it “such holistic processing is disrupted.” Brewer adds that humans are attuned to understanding and figuring out someone through their expressions. Darwin in his famous book The Expression of Emotions in Humans and Animals states that this ability actually gave humans an evolutionary advantage because it improves social interaction and reduces misunderstandings. Thus, resulting in far more cohesion among larger populations. As many experts have said before, the mouth and the eyes are the two most important features in a face that are needed to study it effectively, one of which is covered by a mask. However, others argue that we may not need to see the whole face to know what someone is feeling. According to a 1971 study cited in the book “Silent Feeling” found that, “Total Feeling [emotion]= 7% verbal feeling + 38% vocal feeling + 55% facial feeling” This means that 45% of one’s communication with another isn’t dependent on what someone sees. Other significant factors contribute to this overarching idea of communication.
The most important factor is indeed the facial expressions, but when wearing masks, we don’t cover our entire face. In fact, according to the Miami Herald eyebrows play a very large role in communication: “Today, raising eyebrows can mean you are surprised. When angry, eyebrows form a ‘V’ shape, but when happy, they bend upward into an upside-down ‘U,’ the blog post said. People who are deaf and hard of hearing also use eyebrows to help interpret what others and those who aren’t using sign language are saying, the study said.” Undoubtedly, other features, such as eyebrows, also play a large role in facial communication, and it raises the overarching question: do masks prohibit communication?
So do masks prohibit this?
Many argue that people can still communicate with a mask on but others have raised the important question of whether people with disabilities and communication issues could also be weary-free when it came to masks. This is exactly what Ashley Lawrence, a college student, wanted to achieve. She did this by creating a plastic “window” to the mouth in the mask so that there is both communication and protection from the virus. When more innovative minds come together and create innovations so that we are inclusive for people who don’t have the same privileges as us, there is a beautiful bright future ahead. Thus, after looking at this new invention it is quite the same for people who are deaf, to communicate even with the mask on. If we are all in the same boat, we must understand how much masks prohibit our communication. One way to answer this question is to look at women who are used to wearing clothing that cover their faces and still communicate with their counterparts. They have mentioned that the niqab that they wear over their face is far more thin and comfortable when compared to face masks. However, this doesn’t mean that the communication between two people should be substantially better when wearing a niqab compared to a mask. These women, though used to the material covering their face, say that they do not have issues with communication even with other facial coverings. And this same claim is reassured by psychologist Al Zayer when it comes to masks: “Over-communicate – use more words than you normally would, and ask more questions, to make sure you’re correctly picking up on the other person’s emotions. Learn how to use your other senses and body language, too.” If we slightly adjust our norms and overcompensate for the masks that are somewhat prohibiting us, then we can successfully communicate with masks and make this odd situation as normal as possible.
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