Replication Data for: Reduced Perceived Trustworthiness during face mask-wearing

To curb the diffusion of the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) governments worldwide have introduced different policies, including lockdowns, social distancing, and mandatory mask-wearing. Face-mask wearing especially has an impact on the formation of first impressions, given that when meeting someone for the first time, individuals rely on the only available piece of information, the newly met person's Aesthetic Appearance, in order to make initial estimations of other traits, such as Competence, Intelligence, or Trustworthiness. However, face mask-wearing affects the Aesthetic Appearance of an individual, creating uncertainty, which in turn has been reported to reduce others' perceived trustworthiness. In this paper, the influence of face-mask wearing on strangers' Perceived Trustworthiness and Aesthetic Appearance is assessed, to verify the impact of this policy on impression formation. Participants (N = 71) have been instructed to assess the Trustworthiness and the Aesthetic Appearance of a selection of 96 images, depicting individuals of different age (children, adults, and older adults), gender (men and women), and ethnicity (Asians or Caucasians). Participants were randomly divided in two groups: an experimental group and a control group. Participants in the experimental group (N = 38) rated faces of individuals wearing a face mask, while participants in the control group rated the same faces but in the absence of a face mask. Images were presented in random order. For each face, participants were asked to rate the Aesthetic Appearance and Perceived Trustworthiness of the stranger, on two different 100 points Likert scales. Results demonstrate that (i) the correlation between Perceived Trustworthiness and Aesthetic Appearance is not affected by the presence of a face mask, and (ii) Age but not Ethnicity and Gender influence the magnitude of differences in Perceived Trustworthiness levels during mask-wearing.

为遏制新型冠状病毒（SARS-CoV-2）的传播，全球各国政府相继推出了封控、社交距离管控、强制佩戴口罩等多项防疫政策。其中，佩戴口罩对第一印象的形成影响显著，原因在于人们初次结识他人时，往往仅能依靠对方的外貌审美特征（Aesthetic Appearance）这一唯一可用信息，对其能力、智力或可信度等其他特质做出初步判断。然而，佩戴口罩会改变个体的外貌审美特征，带来视觉不确定性，据相关研究显示，这会降低他人对其感知可信度（Perceived Trustworthiness）的评价。本研究旨在评估佩戴口罩对陌生人感知可信度与外貌审美特征的影响，以验证该防疫政策对印象形成的作用。本次实验共有71名被试，要求他们对96张涵盖不同年龄段（儿童、成年人及老年人）、不同性别（男性与女性）、不同种族（亚裔或白种人）的精选面部图像进行可信度与外貌审美特征评分。被试被随机分为两组：实验组与对照组。实验组（N=38）对佩戴口罩的人物面部图像进行评分，而对照组则对同一组未佩戴口罩的面部图像进行评分。所有图像均以随机顺序呈现。对于每张面部图像，被试需通过两个独立的100分量李克特量表（Likert scale），分别对陌生人的外貌审美特征与感知可信度进行打分。研究结果表明：其一，感知可信度与外貌审美特征之间的相关性不受口罩佩戴与否的影响；其二，在佩戴口罩的情境下，仅年龄因素会影响感知可信度差异的幅度，种族与性别则无显著影响。