A new study from UC Davis finds wearing a mask doesn't impact the ability to communicate.
Researchers had two people read the same sentences, took the recordings and played them to a separate group of listeners who had no idea who was wearing a face mask. And the findings were fairly simple. They found masked speech was not more difficult to understand, and in some cases, the understanding was improved. UC Davis Research Fellow Michelle Cohen says the way a person speaks when wearing a mask impacts how well someone can understand you.
The team also discovered the ability to hear or not to hear someone who's wearing a face mask could be psychological.