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By SASHA PEZENIK, ABC News
(NEW YORK) Peering over the brim of our masks or into the glow of group Zoom chats, we have watched the COVID-19 pandemic upend our world, and how we relate to it.
After having spent more than a year covering our faces and staying 6 feet apart from others, the way we converse and behave has had to change to fit our new reality.
Experts probing the lasting impacts of this era have found shifting structures in our social interaction, empathy and self-perception: COVID-19 has altered the alchemy of our human element.
“Our masks and distance provide us safety, but there’s a cost, and the cost is conversational closeness,” Dr. Paul Ekman, a renowned psychologist who pioneered the study of emotions and facial expressions, told ABC News.
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