Children cannot understand sadness and happiness in people wearing facemasks

The U-Vip (Unit for Visually Impaired People) research team led by Monica Gori at the IIT- Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (Italian Institute of Technology) has recently published a study which shows for the first time how children aged from 3 to 5 years old have problems in recognizing the emotions of people wearing surgical masks. This collateral effect of the preventive measures linked to the COVID-19 health emergency could influence the correct development of children’s capabilities of social interaction. The research paper has been published in Frontiers in Psychology.