Post COVID-19, still wear a face mask? Self-perceived facial attractiveness reduces mask-wearing intention

Seung Eun Cha; Xyle Ku; Incheol Choi

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1084941

Post COVID-19, still wear a face mask? Self-perceived facial attractiveness reduces mask-wearing intention

Front Psychol. 2023 Jan 24:14:1084941. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1084941. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Seung Eun Cha¹, Xyle Ku¹, Incheol Choi^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
² Center for Happiness Studies, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.

Abstract

With the emerging post-COVID era, wearing face masks has become a domain of personal choice. Then, who wants to continue wearing a mask when it is no longer mandatory? In this article, we expect and examine the role of self-perceived facial attractiveness in predicting mask-wearing intention and its mechanism across three studies (total N = 1,030). Studies 1 and 2 demonstrated that individuals with high (vs. low) self-perceived attractiveness were less willing to wear a mask, due to a weaker endorsement of the belief that mask-wearing enhances their perceived attractiveness (i.e., mask attractiveness belief). Study 3 further revealed that this mediational association was stronger in situations where the need to deliver a favorable impression was high (job interview context) versus low (walking a dog context). 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. 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.

Keywords: belief; impression motivation; job interview; mask-wearing intention; self-perceived attractiveness.