Keeping One’s Distance: Mask Wearing is Implicitly Associated With Psychological Distance

Mask wearing plays a vital role in the fight against novel coronavirus (COVID-19). Despite its ubiquity everyday social life, it is still unknown how masked faces are mentally represented. Drawing on construal-level theory, we test hypothesis that and unmasked implicitly associated with psychological distance proximity memory, respectively. Four preregistered, high-powered experiments ( N = 354 adults) using Implicit Association Test lend convergent support to this across all four dimensions of distance: distance, spatial temporal hypothetical distance. A mini meta-analysis validates reliability findings (Hedge’s g 0.46). The present work contributes growing literature effects implicit cognition enriches current discussion mask pandemic beyond.