Emotion Recognition Changes in a Confinement Situation Due to COVID-19

The confinement situation experienced as a result of COVID-19 will have consequences at a psychological level. These consequences can affect emotion recognition because, due to isolation, interactions and social contacts have been drastically reduced. The aim of this study was to find out if there were differences in facial emotion recognition in two groups of young adults, one confined during COVID-19 and the other unconfined. One hundred and sixty-four young adults were tested twice, the first time unconfined, to obtain the baseline, then the sample was divided into two subgroups so that 84 were evaluated in a confined situation and 80 in an unconfined situation. . Ekman 60 Faces test, which includes the recognition of the six basic emotions (anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise) was applied. The main results obtained showed that during the confinement situation there was a significant decrease in the recognition of happiness, and a significant increase in the recognition of sadness and depressed mood. Confinement significantly alters and reduces our social interactions, which can affect our mood as well as our emotional facial recognition. For this reason, health services need to engage in early detection of the psychological effects this situation will have on the population.