BEEN TOLD YOU need to smile more? You’re not the only one.
Many women have identified themselves as having Resting Bitch Face, or a ‘neutral’ expression that reads as bored, judgemental, or grumpy to other people.
But is it actually a thing? Behavioural scientists recently investigated why some people’s neutral faces are seen as expressionless, while others are considered ‘bitchy’.
The Washington Post reports that the research was carried out using face-reading software, which detects and interprets facial expressions in the same way a human brain does.
Pictures of noted sourpusses like Stewart, Anna Kendrick and Kanye West were fed into FaceReader, which detected notes of ‘contempt’ in each of their faces.
The software ultimately detected ‘contempt’ in the neutral expressions of men and women equally, putting paid to the notion that RBF is purely a female phenomenon.
Researcher Abbe Macbeth says our association of RBF with women is probably down to social norms demanding women be perennially cheerful.
“[Smiling] is something that’s expected from women far more than it’s expected from men, and there’s a lot of anecdotal articles and scientific literature on that,” she said.
Resting Bitch Face isn’t something that occurs more in women, but we’re more attuned to notice it in women because women have more pressure on them to be happy and smiley and to get along with others.
So if you’ve been told you have RBF, don’t listen to them. Your face is FINE.
