Suffer from Resting Bitch Face? It’s not your fault, blame science
Resting Bitch Face, or the ability to look like you want to kill everyone around you with your bare hands when in reality you're wondering if you could replace kale with spinach in that green smoothie recipe, is a phenomenon that plagues many of us.
The evil eyes, the sneer, none of it's intentional, it's just your face's default expression. But now the RBF sufferers of this world have finally got some validation, as the Resting Bitch Face has been proven to be a real scientific phenomenon.
Yep, researchers at Noldus Information Technology carried out tests on images of various Resting Bitch Faced celebs – Kristen Stewart, Kanye, Queen Elizabeth and more – to determine what it is about them that causes people to perceive them as angry or contemptful for no reason.
"We were looking to see if anything popped out," scientist Abbe Macbeth says, explaining that their software tests pictures of unsmiling faces to see what percentage of eight basic emotions is registered – anger, contempt, disgust, fear, happiness, neutral, sadness and surprise.
For most pictures, the face will register as 97% neutral, but it's the last 3% that matters.
Celebs like Jennifer Aniston and Blake Lively registered as "happy," while celebs like Kristen Stewart, Anna Kendrick and Kanye registered as "angry" or "contemptful."
Ouch. Apparently it's all down to subtle facial quirks like "one side of the lip pulled back slightly" or "the eyes squinting a little."
So there you have it. Next time you're told to "cheer up, love," you can rest easy in the knowledge that science wanted it like this.
