When I was just a wee lad preschooler, I watched The Lone Ranger on television most mornings. This was way back when there were only three television networks and everything we watched on TV was in black and white because color TV sets were still very rare. The show was in syndication by then – the series had originally aired from 1949 to 1957 on ABC TV – although the reruns were still very popular. Soon after this, westerns would go out of style as outer space, rockets, and astronauts became the cool ‘in’ thing with kids. The Adventures of Superman was another TV re-run series I remember watching in those old days.
At that age, I never questioned the premise that the Lone Ranger was unrecognizable as long as he wore his mask. Nor did I question the idea that no one recognized that Clark Kent was Superman because he, Kent, wore horn-rimmed glasses as a disguise when not wearing a cape and leotards. Fast-forward a few years and, as an older boy, it became obvious to me that neither the Lone Ranger’s mask nor Clark Kent’s glasses were effective disguises that could fool anyone. So why did it fool me when I was younger?
Psychologists recently completed a study which tested children, ages 6 – 14, to learn how much masks interfered with or impaired facial recognition, social interactions, and the ability to form new relationships with peers. The unsurprising results confirmed that children do indeed have a harder time recognizing faces and negotiating social cues when confronted with a masked individual than do adults. As the brain matures these effects lessen, although many adults remain stymied by masks as well.
In short, the preschool version of me didn’t have fully-developed facial recognition skills yet, so the premise of an unrecognizable masked man was an easy tale to swallow.
