FACE masks are putting a damper on the sex lives of Brits looking for love…because they can’t see if people they meet are giving them smiles of encouragement.

A new survey by dating experts happn – which looked into the masked encounters of 2002 Brits – has found that one in four Brits feel it would be difficult to tell if someone was attractive while wearing a mask… In fact, 33 per cent couldn’t possibly fall for someone without seeing their mouth or lower face.

For those who want to find love, however, it’s all in the eyes with 43 per cent saying they’re the most important feature, while 22 per cent said smile.

Unfortunately, it’s not just social distancing that’s coming in the way of us finding true love: almost half of Brits feel less attractive in a mask and 44 per cent feel less confident to approach someone for romantic reasons when donning one.

Though it’s not all doom and gloom. Of those who felt more confident around masked dating, a third said they felt they could be more truthful from behind a mask and the same felt they would feel better in themselves.

Marine Ravinet, Head of Trends at happn, said: “Connections can be formed in all different ways, however we know that that initial moment of attraction is difficult to ignore.

“That being said, with our approaches to dating changing so dramatically over the past few months, it’s no surprise that singles are finding new ways to build confidence after being out of the game for a while.”

Younger Brits were more likely to say they could find someone attractive without seeing their mouth or lower face – 57 per cent of 18-34s said they would be likely, versus 29 per cent of 45-55s and similar patterns emerged when asked if they could fall for someone essentially wearing a mask: 38 per cent of 18-35s said they could if it was just a case of really fancying them.