Investigating the Effects of Face Mask and Gender on Interpersonal Distance Judgments

Face masks and social distancing are widely encouraged as barrier gestures against the Covid-19 pandemic. In the aspect of social psychology, severe public hygiene might change people's perception of interpersonal distance (IPD). The purpose of the current study was to study the effects of face mask and gender on IPD performances. Under the isolation condition, the paper-and-pencil test was selected and conducted into an online version of visual distance scale for IPD measurement. Thirty participants were required to drag the picture-confederates for determining the comfort distance under facing confederates with/without face masks of different genders. The result of the ANOVA showed the significant effect by face mask and confederate's gender on IPD. For confederate's gender, the IPD of male was larger than female. Moreover, the results of face mask effect were found that participants preferred a larger IPD when facing the confederate without a face mask than that with a face mask. In other words, the image of the face mask can arouse the feeling of safety and contribute to social intercourse promotion during the Covid-19 pandemic.