The Mind’s Mask: Concealing, Filling In, and Filling Out

Abstract

Among the many challenges occasioned by the pandemic has been the health and social requirement of wearing a facial covering or mask. In this paper, I explore a few ways masks influence our reception and perception of others. While perhaps we all understand that masks may alter our perceptions through concealment, I suggest that masks additionally potentially facilitate a shift in how we perceive through a process of filling in what the mask conceals. Finally, I also explore how masks potentially empower an agentic process of filling out into the social world in order to effect social change.