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Masked Emotions

Research Project
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07.06.2021
 - 07.06.2021

The ability to recognize different emotions in faces is a fundamental prerequisite in emotion processing, which covers the experience, expression, and control of different emotions. The development of emotion recognition and emotion processing skills is vital for healthy child development and establishment of mental wellbeing. Due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, we are required to wear masks not only in many public places, but also in schools and child daycare facilities. However, many people are worried about the effects that masked faces might have on child socio-emotional development. While first studies indicate that adults might indeed experience problems in recognizing emotions in masked faces, we do not know about any potential effects in children. Moreover, studies in healthy adults have mainly looked at emotion recognition in static pictures, which have limited ecological validity. The goal of this project is to develop a psychological test for children and adults that measures emotion recognition skills in masked and non-masked dynamic faces. After validation, the test may be used as a diagnostic tool. Moreover, we plan to use the test to examine long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on emotion recognition in children.

Members (7)

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Eva Unternährer

Principal Investigator
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Christina Stadler

Co-Investigator
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Tabea Rocco

Project Member
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Alissa Radin

Project Member
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Ksenia Faninstil

Project Member
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Lea Dabis

Project Member
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