Abstract:
This study centered on the role that psychological resources (affected by fear and anxiety) play in distance perception. Utilizing a novel, virtual approach, participants were asked to judge the distance of a series of virtual, cartoon characters in two experiments. The first experiment asked participants to judge distance when the characters were depicted as either wearing or not wearing a mask. Participants were also asked to make these judgments in a second experiment under conditions in which the virtual character being depicted was identified as either someone familiar (friend) or unfamiliar (stranger). Participants also completed a demographic questionnaire and a Likert-style measure assessing their level of fear during conditions present in the coronavirus pandemic. Results of the study indicate that mask-wearing does influence participant distance estimates. Participants underestimated the distance of virtual characters in both experiments when the character was depicted as not wearing a mask. Familiarity did not significantly influence distance perception. These findings extend previous research that supports the role of fear in changes in perception, such as making objects appear closer (Cole, Balcetis, & Dunning, 2013), bigger (Vasey et al., 2012), and to move faster (Witt & Sugovic, 2012) when participants are exposed to fear-inducing stimuli. Continued research in this field may have clinical importance as identifying factors that affect safety-distance perception may allow for better
planning and awareness in the instance of other pandemic or mass disease events. Additional research should also be conducted to extend these findings to other populations.
