Masking (behavior)

In psychology and sociology, masking, also known as social camouflaging, is a defensive behavior in which an individual conceals their natural personality or behavior in response to social pressure, abuse, or harassment. Masking can be strongly influenced by environmental factors such as authoritarian parents, social rejection, and emotional, physical, or sexual abuse.

"Masking" is the act of concealing one's true personality, as if behind a metaphorical, physical mask

Masking can be a behavior individuals adopt subconsciously as coping mechanisms or a trauma response, or it can be a conscious behavior an individual adopts to fit in within perceived societal norms. Masking is interconnected with maintaining performative behavior within social structures and cultures.^[1] Masking is mostly used to conceal a negative emotion (usually sadness, frustration, and anger) with a positive emotion or indifferent affect.^[2] Developmental studies have shown that this ability begins as early as preschool and becomes more developed with age.^[3]

The concept of masking is particularly developed in the understanding of autistic behaviour.^[4] For individuals with autism, masking behaviors are sometimes automatic. They may not even realize that they are doing them. This is not always the case though, as some behaviors take constant effort and conscious social monitoring to maintain. ^[5]

Masks represent an artificial face, in the "saving face" sense. Seeing life as theatre is the core of the closely related social perspectives of dramatism, dramaturgy and performativity. Masks are a tool of impression management and stigma management, which are parts of reputation management. ^{[citation needed]}

History

Tragedy and comedy masks are sometimes used by actors to convey emotions to achieve entertainment ends, similar to how people wear "masks" to convey emotions to achieve social ends.

Masking has existed since antiquity, with authors like Shakespeare referencing it in fiction long before masking was formally defined and studied within psychology.^[6]

In the influential book The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1956), Erving Goffman emphasized the link between social life and performance. Reviews of camouflaging literature suggest that Goffman's theory of social performance is still key for explaining how masking helps people shape others’ perceptions and handle stigma. ^[7]

Frantz Fanon is credited with defining masking in his 1957 Black Skin, White Masks, which describes masking behavior in race relations within the stratified post-war United States.^[1][8] Fanon explained how African-Americans, especially those of low social capital, adopted certain behaviors to resemble white people as well as other behaviors intended to please whites and reinforce the white man's higher social status.^[8]

The black man has two dimensions. One with his fellows, the other with the white man. That this self-division is a direct result of colonialist subjugation is beyond question.

— Frantz Fanon, Black Skins, White Masks, ^[8]

The term masking was used to describe the act of concealing disgust by Paul Ekman (1972) and Wallace V Friesen (1969).^[2] They thought of it as a learned behavior.

Lorna Wing proposed that females' higher levels of masking than males led to their underdiagnosing of having autism in 1981.^{[9]: 20 [6]: 134}

The Camouflaging Autistic Traits Questionnaire (CAT-Q), which measures autistic masking, was published by Laura Hull,^[10] Simon Baron-Cohen and others in March 2019.^[11][12] Recent validity testing suggests that while the CAT-Q demonstrates measurement stability across age groups, further research is needed to investigate how cultural and age-related differences may impact its ability to properly measure populations in different countries. ^[13]

Causes

The social drivers of masking include social discrimination, cultural dominance, and violence. Elizabeth Radulski argues that masking is a cultural performance within Judith Butler's concept of performativity that helps individuals bypass cultural and structural barriers.^[1] For individuals with autism, masking is often the product of a fear-driven effort to follow perceived social norms and blend in with peers and colleagues in social or professional environments. ^[14]

Situational contexts

The causes of masking are highly contextual and situational. Masking may disguise emotions considered socially inappropriate within a situational context, such as anger, jealousy, or rage. Individuals may mask in certain social situations, such as job interviews or dates, or around people of different cultures, identities, or ethnicities.^[2] For example, autistic individuals often engage in camouflaging within workplace settings as a necessary tool for job retention and promotion, as well as "fitting in" within the professional culture. ^[7] Since different social situations require different performances, individuals often switch masks and exhibit different masking behaviors in different contexts. Code-switching, although associated more with linguistics, also refers to the process of changing one's masking behavior around different cultures in social and cultural anthropology.^[15] Contextual factors including relationships with one's conversation partner, social capital (class) differences, location, and social setting are all reasons why an individual would express, suppress, or mask an emotion.^[16]

Consequences

In the workplace, masking leads to feelings of dissonance, insincerity, job dissatisfaction, emotional and physical exhaustion, and self-reported health problems.^[17] Some have also reported experiencing somatic symptoms and harmful physiological and cognitive effects as a consequence.^[2] It can lead to burnout. Because masking behaviors can obscure a person’s struggles or diagnostic indicators from colleagues, management, and school or medical professionals, it can also end up delaying accommodations or assistance that could be provided to them for support.^[5]

Masking can increase loneliness. In particular, some autistic individuals report that it impedes them forming real connections with other people, and many feel as if they have lost their true identity as an autistic individual, feeling as if they are only playing a role for the majority of their lives.^[18]

Though there are many disadvantages to masking for individuals, many report the benefits masking has brought for them. Such reports stated that individuals felt as though it became easier to socialize, to uphold careers, build relationships, and even at times, were able to protect themselves.^[19]

Gender differences

There is a gendered disparity in masking behavior; studies show women mask negative emotions to a greater extent than men. According to psychologist Teresa Davis, this may be due to the greater social expectation for conformity placed on female gender roles, causing women to develop the skill to a greater extent than men during childhood socialization.^[20]

This causes autism in females to be underdiagnosed relative to males.^{[21][22][23][24][25]} In turn, females with unrecognised autism do not receive social allowances for this condition, increasing their motivation to mask. Additionally, reviews indicate that Patient Access Network (PAN) research mainly involves white, adult females without intellectual disabilities, pointing to the importance of including more demographically diverse participants to broaden findings.^[26]

Autistic masking

Main article: Autistic masking

Autistic masking is masking applied to autistic behaviors, with the aim of suppressing them (and appearing less autistic).^[27][22] It is a learned coping strategy.^[28][29]

Typical examples of autistic masking include the suppression of stimming and meltdowns, a common reaction to sensory overload.^[28][4] To compensate difficulties in social interaction with non-autistic peers, autistic people might maintain eye contact despite discomfort, use rehearsed conversational scripts, or mirror the body language and tone of others.^{[27][22][28][30]}

This masking often requires an exceptional effort.^[28][31] It is linked with adverse mental health outcomes such as stress,^[32] autistic burnout,^[22] anxiety and other psychological disorders,^[32] loss of identity,^[32] and suicidality.^[22][32][33] Some studies find that compensation strategies are seen as contributing to leading a successful and satisfactory life.^[27][34] However, experts caution that promoting camouflaging without addressing its psychological impacts could unintentionally cause negative mental health outcomes.^[7]

A 2021 study found masking experiences between autistic and non-autistic groups were similar, but only autistic people masked autism-specific symptoms.^[4] Masking has been linked to confusion about personal identity among these individuals, who can start to have trouble distinguishing their authentic qualities from the personas they have adopted to conform.^[5]

See also

• Psychology portal
• Psychiatry portal

• Alter ego
• Beard (companion)
• Closeted
• Code-switching
• Facial Action Coding System
• Identity formation
• Minority stress
• Model minority
• Passing (sociology)
• Persona (psychology)
• Undercover