We need to listen with our eyes now
Study underway to see how people can avoid misunderstandings tied to mask use.
The COVID-19 testing site worker mumbled something to me through her face mask from behind a plastic partition separating us. I leaned forward to hear what she said.
“Huh? Excuse me?” I asked.
I squinted to see her facial expression. Her eyes didn’t say a word. Her eyebrows didn’t offer a clue.
Was she annoyed with me? Or angry that I couldn’t hear her? Or bored with another test patient in her face? I had no idea. That’s when I realized, again, how important facial expressions can be during our masked conversations in public places.
Watching people talk, not only hearing them audibly, matters more than I thought. Especially for me. I have a slight hearing problem in noisy public situations.
In our new masked-face reality, I feel I’ve been missing intrinsic social cues that I’ve been conditioned to look for, and act upon, since interacting with others as a baby. I’ve also been intentionally more expressive with my face when wearing a mask. Otherwise, my normal resting face appears angry or intense, I’ve been told.
“Covering your nose and mouth comprises only 30% of your face but it conceals so much about our expressiveness,” said Susan Ibitz, of Ogden Dunes, Indiana, owner of the Human Behavior Lab in Chicago.
As I wrote in a May column, Ibitz doesn’t hack into computers, she hacks into humans by interpreting their facial mannerisms, body language and physical reactions to situations. With masks now a part of many of our social interactions, we need to learn how to better “read” people through their masks.
“It’s all about learning a new skill to empower us in social situations,” Ibitz said. “It’s one way for us to go back to normal in some way.”
Ibitz’s firm is conducting an independent study to address this new societal challenge. The study’s webpage states, “We are living in a masked-face society and it looks like it is going to be so for a long time. The results of this study will be published for anyone to access and to learn the accuracy of the human eye versus artificial intelligence analysis.”
One key takeaway from the study will be how people can interact with others who are masked without having unwarranted suspicions or communication misunderstandings.
“People shouldn’t be manipulated by masked fear,” Ibitz said. “We just need to tune our brain how to learn this new skill.”
All that’s needed from participants are four submitted photos of their masked face, taken at a 90-degree angle, with or without eyeglasses. The four poses: their face in a neutral position; their face smiling; their right ear and head; and their left ear and head.
Volunteers, who must be 18 and older, can email these photos to faces @humanbehaviorlab.com, with a subject line stating: “Faces with mask study (and your first name).” A case number will be returned to participants within 48 hours.
Contributors’ confidential information will be kept in a database for six months, with results published on its website before being permanently erased. The study was initially designed to involve 300 participants. It had to be scaled down to 200 due to a hesitance from people regarding masked photos of themselves, Ibitz said.
“Many people are hesitant of seeing themselves in a mirror, let alone agreeing to get their face analyzed,” she said. “It’s a very human fear, and I understand.”
This hesitance, or resistance, reflects a vocal opposition from millions of Americans about wearing masks in public places. These critics of the recommended practice have cited an infringement of their civil liberties, government overreach, a distrust of public health officials, or they simply don’t take this pandemic seriously.
“Many of these people do not want to wear a mask for different reasons,” Ibitz said.
For example, some men refuse to wear a mask because they feel it’s a sign of weakness or vulnerability. President Donald Trump has embodied this type of unmasked macho persona, though just recently he has called it patriotic to wear a mask in public.
Look no further than my own city, Valparaiso, to see residents refusing to wear masks inside businesses, against state mandate, even if they’re reminded by signs or asked to do so by employees. The novel problem of conversing through a mask is obviously not the problem with these people.
Another example, Ibitz pointed out, is how some minorities are reluctant to wear a mask because it portrays them in a negative fashion to society. Or it can lead to being unfairly profiled in public. “For instance, an African American man who wears a dark mask and walks into a store,” Ibitz said.
These are some of the demographic dynamics regarding facial coverings, which have become a political flashpoint and fashion accessory.
Chicago Tribune columnist Mary Schmich’s recent column took a playful spin with this contentious topic by noting that everyone’s mask may tell a story. “What’s yours?” she asks. “You can recount where you got it, when and why, maybe who made it.”
I hadn’t thought of this attitude toward wearing a mask in public. If we have to wear one, why not make it fun or interesting or a conversation starter. Schmich often asks people, “What’s the story of your mask?”
I have several different kinds of masks, though I typically wear a black one given to me by my son. I’d prefer to look like a bandit than a surgeon. It fits my sloppy fashion choices. I also have an N-95 respiratory mask. I haven’t needed it yet in a medical setting for professional reasons. It’s been in a box of personal protection equipment that I keep in my car, just in case.
I’m guessing I’ll eventually need it as our country nears 5 million COVID-19 cases and nearly 160,000 coronavirus deaths, by far the most of any country. Masks will be a part of our social landscape whether we like them or not, or agree with their effectiveness.
We need to better understand each other through all these masked conversations. Let’s start talking more — and listening more — with our eyes.