A face at rest is not read as neutral. People read small things in it: brows that sit low, mouth corners that turn down, a chin tipped down, lids that hang. None of them means you are annoyed. All of them are read that way, and fast: people settle on a face within about a tenth of a second (Willis & Todorov 2006). This is what gets called resting bitch face, or RBF.
What a resting face gives away
- Low brows read as angry and dominant. In everyday photos, the distance between eye and brow is the strongest cue for dominance (Vernon et al. 2014; Witkower & Tracy 2019).
- A chin tipped down makes level brows look lowered. A neutral face tilted down 10° was rated far more dominant than the same face held level, because the tilt makes level brows look lowered and V-shaped (Witkower & Tracy 2019). It is where the head goes when you look at a screen below you.
- Mouth corners that turn down read as tired and sad (Sundelin et al. 2013).
- Hanging upper lids read as tired (Sundelin et al. 2013), and narrowed eyes as scrutiny and suspicion (Lee & Anderson 2017).
- A face that merely resembles anger is judged less warm and less competent (Zebrowitz, Kikuchi & Fellous 2010).
What to change
- Bring your chin level, within 5° up or down.
- Let your brows sit where they do when you are at ease. Do not raise them: held high, they read as surprise (Knoll, Attkiss & Persing 2008).
- Level your mouth corners. A slight closed smile is enough to be read as approachable; it does not have to be a broad one.
- Open your eyes to their resting width.
- Look at their eyes for about 3 seconds at a time, then glance to the side, not down (Binetti et al. 2016; Mason, Tatkow & Macrae 2005).
See what your own face is doing
A mirror is a poor judge of your resting face: you see it only while you are looking at it. How I Land reads it from your camera. Choose “approachable” or “calm” after “Be seen as” and it names what differs, one thing at a time: “Chin up 6°”, “Level your mouth corners”. Brows and eyes are measured against your own resting face.
Free. Nothing is recorded, stored or sent.
It is not a flaw
A resting face is anatomy and habit, not character, and no face is wrong. The point is to know what yours signals, and to have another one ready for the moments you choose.