Unattractive People Are More Likely To Wear Masks Even Though Covid Pandemic Is Over, Per New Study

The coronavirus pandemic started in early 2020 and led to the entire country being shut down for months on end. Many small businesses were permanently closed, thousands of people lost their jobs, and to make matters worse, the coronavirus vaccine was mandated in various places around the country, leaving many people to lose their livelihood because they decided not to take an experimental shot. But even though the pandemic is over, there are many people who have had trouble readjusting back to normal day-to-day life. Some have even expressed that they can't go out anymore without fear of getting sick again. And even though masks aren't mandated, there are still people who choose to wear a mask when they go out. A new study from South Korea that was published in Frontiers Psychology suggests that people who are unattractive are much more likely to wear a mask even though they don't need to.

Unattractive People Are More Likely to Wear Masks Even Though Covid Pandemic Is Over, Per New Study

It's estimated that about 4 out of every 10 Americans are still choosing to wear a mask even though there is no requirement anymore. While many people claim they are wearing it to protect themselves from sickness, a new study from South Korea suggests that people are actually wearing them to cover up their face rather than prevent contracting a virus.

At Seoul National University, three experiments were performed on Americans recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk, a crowdsourcing website for businesses. There were 442 people involved, 44% of the participants were men, and the average age of all the individuals was 33 years old. Half of the people were told they were going to a job interview and the other half were told they were going to walk a dog.

Each participant was asked two question: "In this scenario, do you think others will perceive you as more attractive with a face mask?" and "How much do you want to make a good first impression on others?"

The people who thought they were going to a job interview cared about how a mask would make them look, whether it was more or less attractive. Then they scored their facial attractiveness and asked more questions: "Do you think the interviewers will perceive you as more attractive with a face mask?" and "If wearing a face mask is optional in this interview session, would you wear a face mask during the company interview?"

The people who scored themselves as attractive were less likely to say yes to these questions, while also indicating that wearing a mask doesn't make them look better. People who admitted that a mask would make them look more competent and attractive were the ones who said they were likely to wear a mask to the job interview.

"Overall, we provide a novel finding that self-perceived attractiveness has significant effects on mask-wearing intention via mask attractiveness belief in the post-pandemic of COVID-19," the researchers said. "Our findings suggest that mask-wearing can shift from being a self-protection measure during the COVID-19 pandemic to a self-presentation tactic in the post-pandemic era."

In the study, they pulled anonymous quotes from the internet: “I can’t wait to stop wearing a mask … I can’t wait to show my full face in places again" and “I like to hide my face under the mask and really dread the day when mask mandates will come to an end.”

While some people may find this study to be silly, there are many people online who have expressed these sentiments, admitting that they are afraid to show their face in public because they think they look better with a mask on. Sadly, the mask that once started as a protective measure (even though it was proven to not even work as a protective measure) has been transformed into a crutch that helps people hide their face from the world.