Masking (behavior)

Masking can be strongly influenced by environmental factors such as authoritarian parents, social rejection, and emotional, physical, or sexual abuse.

That this self-division is a direct result of colonialist subjugation is beyond question.The term masking was used to describe the act of concealing disgust by Paul Ekman (1972) and Wallace V Friesen (1969).

Individuals may mask in certain social situations, such as job interviews or dates, or around people of different cultures, identities, or ethnicities.

[12] In the workplace, masking leads to feelings of dissonance, insincerity, job dissatisfaction, emotional and physical exhaustion, and self-reported health problems.

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.

[17][18][19][20][21] In turn, females with unrecognised autism do not receive social allowances for this condition, increasing their motivation to mask.

[24][25] Typical examples of autistic masking include the suppression of stimming and meltdowns, a common reaction to sensory overload.

[24][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.

[24][27] It is linked with adverse mental health outcomes such as stress,[28] autistic burnout,[23] anxiety and other psychological disorders,[28] loss of identity,[28] and suicidality.

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