‘Mask Fishing’ of TikTok’s Psychological Impact; Are People More Attractive With a Mask On?

One of the most famous social media sites, TikTok, always adds new terms and trends that people find fun and interesting. This page has a new word called "mask fishing."

As mask rules loosen up worldwide, more people are wearing this style. This is especially true for teens and young adults still getting used to making friends after the pandemic.

‘Mask Fishing’ of TikTok's Psychological Impact — (Photo: Unsplash/ Pille R. Priske )

What is Mask Fishing?

For those unfamiliar, mask fishing is the belief that putting a mask over one's face makes them appear more beautiful. People first used the phrase on TikTok, where people post videos of their faces with and without masks and ask watchers to decide if the mask makes them look better. The idea comes from "catfishing," when someone tricks others by giving them a fake online name.

Mask fishing has become popular on TikTok, especially among teens. Users have shared their experiences and worries about showing their full faces after lifting mask rules. A 17-year-old student named Tanushri Sundaram told The New York Times what she thought. She said people can only see their faces and eyes when wearing a mask. When the mask is taken off, it's like seeing a different person, which can lead to strange looks.

Many young people who felt self-conscious about things like braces, acne, or other things they wore masks to hide said the same thing. Now that mask laws aren't enforced, there's more pressure to meet social beauty standards, which makes people feel even worse about their looks and causes the viral trend of mask fishing.

The Psychological Aspect

Mask fishing is fun because our brains tend to fill in blanks with imagined versions of reality. When we only see a small part of someone's face, our brains automatically make a picture of what the rest of their face looks like, and it's usually a pretty picture.

In her book "Visual Intelligence," Amy E. Herman says that our brains process face recognition, combining parts like the eyes, nose, and mouth to make a whole. When a mask covers up part of the face, the brain makes up for it by picturing the secret parts, which can make a person seem more attractive than they are.

Mask Fishing and Cognitive Bias

This happens because of cognitive errors and the way the brain makes predictions. People are hard-wired to avoid doubt and look for closure. When we can't see part of someone's face, our brains fill in the blanks with information we can access, often making us think better of them. That's why some people might look better with a mask on the brain's filling-in process, which tends to make things look better than they are.

"Mask fisher" is a bad name because it makes the person wearing the mask sound like they are lying or cheating. On the other hand, most people who might be seen as mask anglers are just following health rules and aren't trying to trick anyone. Calling someone a "mask fisher" might reinforce harmful beauty standards and cause people to feel awful about themselves because of their appearance.

This trend also raises larger issues in society, such as lookism and placing too much weight on appearance. The difference between what was expected and what happened can make people feel let down or ashamed when removing masks. This shows the importance of having a more understanding and loving view of people's appearance without limiting them to unrealistic beauty standards.

Moving past the pandemic, we must understand how mask-fishing trends affect people's minds and relationships. Accepting who we are and learning about the cognitive flaws that affect how we see things can help make society more open and caring. Instead of naming and judging, let's value the variety of how people look and focus on the natural person.

Mask fishing on TikTok is more than just a popular trend; it shows how we see and judge beauty in a world slowly revealing its secrets.