Mask(ed) Emotions
Day 10 Prompt: Affective Science Inspired Sciku
with or without mask
emotions will find a way
to grow and connect
The COVID-19 crisis continues, and with that, the age of masks or face covering is here to stay, at least for a while. This has many implications for our daily lives, and one of them is — what it might mean for our ability to communicate and convey non-verbal cues to those around us.
Think for a moment about how much is conveyed with a smile or a frown — and now imagine not being able to see that smile or frown as it is covered under a mask. Now imagine the scenario in schools or places where kids and adults are interacting with their faces partly covered — might it impact children’s emotional development — after all, social learning in humans is in large part via imitation. With the face covered, much of the information cues are taken away — Will the kids have difficulty identifying and understanding emotions?
Well, apparently not so much — according to a new study by University of Wisconsin-Madison psychologists — they report that the face coverings to keep COVID-19 in check isn’t necessarily keeping kids from understanding facial expressions.
“Emotions aren’t conveyed solely through your face,” Ruba says. “Vocal inflections, the way that someone positions their body, and what’s going on around them, all that other information helps us make better predictions about what someone is feeling.” ( source : Ruba et al., 2020)
Hopefully, it is comforting to know that while it might be slightly tougher to identify emotions with part of faces being covered, that overall, kids are resilient and our brains are able to adjust to the information they are given and growing in their emotional capabilities.
With the new vaccine or two, and with reasonable lifestyle changes to keep us safe, let us hope that 2021 brings a swift end to the COVID-19 crisis — we have learned a lot and hope it unmasks our collective drive to excel against all odds!
Stay safe and healthy everyone!
*This is Day 10 of the #sciku challenge — science-inspired haiku-like poetry( so #sciku?) prompts to get you inspired — Our dear readers — why not spend some time each day creating and having a little fun — if you do — publish it anywhere on medium, just tag it with — #30DaysOfScikuChallenge.
**If Haikus/SciKus are not your thing, feel free to exercise your artistic creativity and write another form of a science-inspired story — I can’t wait to read what you come up with.
Tagging Laura Griffith Machado, PsyD Lee Ameka Ruchi Thalwal Synthia Satkuna, KK Malukani, PhD and anyone else who feels inspired to follow and/or play along with this fun #30DaysOfScikuChallenge and today’s prompt: Affective Science
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