Come see if you have a face like assholes – The Post

He’s got Queen Elizabeth, and even the fashion designer Victoria Beckham. Not to mention the actress Kirsten Stewart, who is the champion. The most well-known people who happen to show “involuntary by stupid face” ( resting bitch face , the term created in English) are women, with some exceptions among men, as in the case Kanye West. They have all been taken for a ride, on the internet, for the expression that they remain absorbed in thought or: a look described as vaguely annoyed, a little ‘critical and perhaps slightly bored. Since a meme on the resting bitch face has started to rage on the internet in 2013 – driven by an advertising parody on progress syndrome “involuntary face asshole” – many they have begun to recognize the dreaded expression in articles dedicated to famous people, in their social circle, or even the mirror.

Jason Rogers and Abbe Macbeth, behavioral researchers Noldus Information Technology, a company that deals with international research and innovation, they decided to study the phenomenon. Why some faces are considered simply inexpressive and other irritants inexplicably? What exactly makes us associate apparently neutral expression to a "face asshole"?

"The study is intentionally funny and ironic, but it is also supported by valid scientific data," said Macbeth. The researchers used FaceReader, Noldus a sophisticated tool designed to identify a specific expression from a catalog of over ten thousand images of human faces. The program scans the faces through a video camera, a photo or a video, mapping eight points on the face, and then analyze the image and assign an emotion, a choice of eight basic human emotions: happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, disgust, contempt and "neutrality."

for reference, Rogers and Macbeth have first had to analyze FaceReader a series of authentically blank faces, where 97 percent of neutrality has been detected, according Macbeth. In the remaining 3 per cent, they were found "small signs of emotion": a hint of sadness and some hint of surprise, but nothing significant.

When the researchers added Kanye West pictures, Kirsten Stewart and Queen Elizabeth, the level of excitement detected by the program has doubled to six per cent. The change was caused by an emotion in particular: "The big difference in the percentages was due to the" contempt "," Macbeth said. But how does a program to measure the contempt in a face? They are small signals, such as "pick up part of the lip, or squeeze lightly eyes," said Rogers, or, as told Macbeth, "when the area around the eyes becomes narrower, and the corners of the lips are raised a bit ' , but not to smile. " The clues are subtle, but the program detects and interprets as would the human brain: "There is something in some neutral expression that communicates a sense of contempt, both the program and to us," said Macbeth.

With a big difference, he added. Being a software - and therefore immune to gender bias - FaceReader proved decidedly impartial, noting "the expression by stupid" for women and men equally. Which shows that the idea that the phenomenon is predominantly female has more to do with social norms that with the physiognomy. Take the case of the actress Anna Kendrick, who complained publicly of the consequences of having a "face like a bitch" in his life: "As a young man, the directors told her:" Why do not you smile more? You do not seem very happy "," Macbeth said. "It's something you would expect much more by women than by men, there are many articles and extensive scientific literature about it. The "asshole face" is not necessarily a female characteristic. Simply, we are more apt to notice it in women because we expect that they are more happy and smiling, and get along with others. "

And even if we had a face like assholes unintentionally? Now you can check this with certainty. After publishing the results of their study to October, Rogers and Macbeth have invited the public to send pictures of their faces for analysis. Men and women can send a photo of their expression as "neutral" as possible at jason@noldus.com. FaceReader will tell you if you are only expressionless, or if you have something in common with the queen.

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