Can't Trust A Person With A Resting B**** Face

That resting face some of us have may come off as untrustworthy….

According to some research in the Personal and Social Psychology journal, people think that those with that b****-looking resting face, means you’re untrustworthy!

The study showed pictures of a number of faces to participants, and the majority of them agreed on which faces looked trustworthy, and those that couldn’t be trusted. Their perception of trustworthiness was based off of the expression each person had on their face. The face to be less trustworthy were more angry-looking, eyebrows and mouth turned down.

But sometimes, we can’t help the resting b**** face! It’s our RESTING face! The default face!

Those of us (like me) who are victims of this dilemma, (aka Chronic B****Face), know what I’m talking about, as we’re always telling people, “I’m not mad, it’s just my face.”

Because on the inside, you may feel like a ray of sunshine, but your face shows otherwise….

If you’re not smiling, prepare for the rush of questions:

“What’s the problem?” “Are you pissed?”

And the worst is when they tell you to smile, or that you should smile more.

Then, there’s also the stress of having to be extra peppy for meetings, to compensate. And then you’re exhausted after faking a smile so people don’t assume you’re angry.

But, another interesting part from the study is about perceptions of competence. When participants were shown the same face in different widths, they identified narrower faces as being less competent and wider faces as more competent.

So basically, if you’ve got a narrower face and CBF (me, again), you’re doomed, and will forever be making up for everyone’s perceived lack of competence while maintaining a cheerful expression.

Sounds exhausting.

BLAKE & WYLDE

(Images via Eva Rinaldi)