Do you have Resting Bitch Face or are you just unhappy to see me?
It's a concept plaguing modern society -- faces, typically female, which unintentionally come across as judgmental, bored, disgusted, annoyed, snobby or, put simply, bitchy.
The term entered the pop culture lexicon in 2013 and since then celebrities like Kristen Stewart, Victoria Beckham, Anna Kendrick and even Taylor Swift's cat have been publicly diagnosed with the very relatable condition.
Is there a filter on Instagram that fixes Bitchy Resting Face? Asking for a friend.— Anna Kendrick (@AnnaKendrick47) July 25, 2014
And while it's less known and discussed, RBF also effects men (sometimes dubbed Resting Dick Face) -- its most famous victim is undeniably Kanye West.
So, like any unexplained medical condition, RBF attracted the attention of behavior researchers Jason Rogers and Abbe Macbeth from international research and innovation firm Noldus Information Technology. Mainly, they sought out to detect why some faces are perceived as being 'bitchy', while the face possessor has no underlying angst.
“We wanted this to be fun and kind of tongue-in-cheek, but also to have legitimate scientific data backing it up,” Macbeth tells The Washington Post.
Using Noldus' own software called FaceReader, the researchers first studied "expressionless faces" which registered 97% neutral, with just 3% "blips of emotion." They compared those statistics against the expressionless face readings of chronicle RBFers Kanye West, Kristen Stewart and Queen Elizabeth. Shockingly, for the three celebs the emotion levels doubled to 6% -- mainly detecting "contempt," according to Macbeth, in a study published in October.
Rogers further explains how the computer measures "contempt," attributing it to a subtle squinting of eyes, furrowed brows or a slight lip snarl.
Ultimately, the conclusion was that even a computer sensed a hint of bitchiness, just as society does, which means we aren't making this condition up.
But, more interestingly, the researchers also found that the software showed no gender bias in it's RBF statistics -- it detected bitchiness in both male and females faces equally. Which means it is wholly a societal phenomenon that we can identity several more women with RBF than men and it is quite possibly hindering female workplace success.
"RBF isn’t necessarily 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,” MacBeth said.