Do Face Masks Help or Hinder Empathy? Ft. Dr. Jelena Ristic Purposeful Empathy Hosted by Anita Nowak

Watch this episode to learn about the importance of visual social cues in cognition and how face-masks impact our ability to connect with one another. Professor of Psychology, Jelena Ristic, is an expert in human attention and social cognition. In this episode, she discusses how opaque face masks (such as those typically worn throughout COVID-19) impacts our capacity to discern emotions. She also unpacks other fascinating findings from research conducted  in her lab about the role facial cues have in human communication. 00:00 Introduction 00:23 About Dr. Jelena Ristic 01:44 About Jelena’s research on cognition and social communication 07:15 What causes preferential bias in faces? 12:03 How we detect and discern social cues through facial expressions 14:01 How familiarity plays a role in in communication 15:55 The combination between the cognitive and social components in communication 17:50 What is the impact of face-masks on empathy? 19:26 The 6 basic emotions we can reliably recognize 22:22 Can transparent face-masks restore emotional recognition? 25:12 The broader societal impacts of wearing masks 30:13 Dr. Jelena Ristic’s Purposeful Empathy Story CONNECT WITH DR. JELENA RISTIC ✩ Twitter: @ProfRistic ✩ ASC Lab Twitter: @ASCLabMcgill ✩ McGill Twitter:  @McgillU ✩ McGill Psychology Twitter: @McGillPsych CONNECT WITH ANITA ✩ Email [email protected] ✩ Website https://www.anitanowak.com/ ✩ LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/anitanowak ✩ Instagram https://tinyurl.com/anitanowakinstagram ✩ Twitter https://twitter.com/anitanowak21 ✩ Facebook Page https://tinyurl.com/PurposefulEmpathyFacebook ✩ Facebook Group https://tinyurl.com/PurposefulEmpathyCommunity ✩ Podcast Audio https://tinyurl.com/PurposefulEmpathyPodcast This episode was brought to you by Grand Heron International REACH THEM AT ✩ Website www.grandheroninternational.ca; www.ghi.coach ✩ LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/grand-heron-international/ ✩ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/grandheroninternational/ ✩ Instagram @Grand_Heron_International ✩ Twitter @GrandHeronIntl ✩ https://twitter.com/GrandHeronIntl Video edited by David Tsvariani