Perini Matteo, Sciara Simona
Erasmus University Rotterdam, Burgemeester Oudlaan, 50, 3062 Rotterdam, PA Netherlands.
Department of Psychology, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Largo Agostino Gemelli, 1, 20123 Milano, MI Italy.
Trends Psychol. 2022;30(4):718-728. doi: 10.1007/s43076-021-00139-2. Epub 2022 Jan 3.
Can wearing an anti-COVID face mask bring any positive effects on social interactions? Based on objective self-awareness theory (OSA), our pilot experiment tested whether wearing an anti-COVID-19 face mask-a facial covering that should reduce self-focused attention-can predispose people to spontaneity in social interactions. Upon randomization ( = 91), participants were asked to either wear or not wear a mask while completing an online survey that assessed their willingness to be spontaneous in various imagined social situations (e.g., willingness to express ideas in public). As expected, participants who completed the survey while wearing a face mask reported higher levels of anticipated spontaneity, declaring they would have been more willing to express their ideas in the proposed interactions than those who did not wear a mask. Results support the hypothesis that anti-COVID face masks reduce objective self-awareness by drawing others' focus away from the person's face. This effect seems to eventually encourage people's propensity to spontaneity and ideas' expression in social interactions. Implications concerning both positive and negative potential consequences of this effect, as well as possible directions for deepening the study of social effects of anti-COVID measures and further testing the theory of objective self-awareness, are discussed.
佩戴新冠防护口罩会对社交互动产生积极影响吗？基于客观自我意识理论（OSA），我们的初步实验测试了佩戴新冠防护口罩（一种应能减少自我关注的面部遮盖物）是否会使人们在社交互动中更倾向于自发行为。随机抽取91名参与者，要求他们在完成一项在线调查时佩戴或不佩戴口罩，该调查评估了他们在各种想象的社交情境中自发行为的意愿（例如，在公共场合表达想法的意愿）。正如预期的那样，佩戴口罩完成调查的参与者报告的预期自发程度更高，宣称他们在提议的互动中比未佩戴口罩的参与者更愿意表达自己的想法。结果支持了这样的假设，即新冠防护口罩通过将他人的注意力从人的面部转移开，从而降低客观自我意识。这种效应似乎最终会鼓励人们在社交互动中自发行为的倾向和想法的表达。本文讨论了这种效应的积极和消极潜在后果，以及深化新冠防护措施社会效应研究和进一步检验客观自我意识理论的可能方向。
