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Body Language

Convert ‘Resting Zoom Face’ to ‘Neutral Alert’

By Marsha Hunter

What messages are your furrowed brow or pursed lips sending to clients, peers, judges or juries? And what can you do to ensure your face stays in “neutral alert” rather than RBF?

resting bitch face

Resting Zoom Face

Long before Zoom forced us to get comfortable with onscreen appearance, The New York Times brought the pop culture term “resting bitch face” (RBF) to the mainstream media. “I’m Not Mad. That’s Just My RBF” sparked lots of discussion about the label at the time, especially since it employs the word “bitch” and is directed at women.

Gender focus aside — RBF isn’t exclusive to women — it is a given that facial expressions are a critical part of your demeanor. The Times article points out that “as science has long proved, humans make judgments based on facial cues. Studies have found that people are less likely to find friendly looking faces guilty of crimes; people who look ‛happy’ are generally deemed more trustworthy, too.”

While it is entertaining to explore the links that come up when you Google “RBF” (here’s one of my favorites), there is a serious lesson in this for lawyers. What messages are your furrowed brow or pursed lips sending to your clients, judges or juries? And what can you do to ensure your face stays in “neutral alert” rather than RBF?

People focus on your face as they listen, and you must be aware of your demeanor as you speak.

Your Mouth

Consider your mouth and lips. It is common for people under pressure to reveal their anxiety by tensing their lips. Some people press the lips tightly together. Others tuck one lip inside and gently chew on it. This tension looks peculiar. Instead, your face should look at ease and comfortable with no visible tension, a look best described as “neutral alert.” In neutral alert you appear attentive without revealing obvious emotion; you are neither smiling nor frowning. To achieve neutral alert, part your lips slightly — no more than a quarter of an inch — and breathe through both your mouth and nose. When your lips are slightly parted, they cannot tense, scowl or tuck.

Your Furrowed Brow

Another area of potential tension is the forehead and brow. When people concentrate, they often tense muscles in the upper part of the face above and between the eyebrows, drawing the eyebrows together. This furrowed brow of concentration can make you seem angry and annoyed. To fix the problem, gently move the muscles in your forehead in opposite directions. When you lift your eyebrows slightly, the tension disappears. Lift your brows whenever you sense that your forehead and brows are tense. Look in a mirror to see this subtle effect. By moving your mouth and your forehead slightly, your face looks alert yet neutral — neither scowling nor artificially happy.

Your Listeners

Turn the tables and think about your listeners’ faces, and RBF offers a different (and somewhat contradictory) lesson: You can’t judge listeners by their expressions.

The stoic facial expressions of listeners in legal proceedings can be off-putting to say the least. In conversation, you get regular, subtle feedback from people. They nod, raise their eyebrows, smile, frown, and make those reassuring noises that indicate they are listening. We expect and need some type of physical or verbal indication we are being listened to. Yet when you are speaking to a judge, jury or arbitrator, almost all of that feedback vanishes. Stone-faced jurors offer few clues about what they are thinking. You may find these stoic expressions intimidating and distracting, yet they are natural for jurors listening to you. They may look unfriendly, even hostile. Don’t let this throw you. Your job is to soldier on and even make eye contact with these listeners, no matter how difficult it sometimes maybe.

Whether you find humor in the “resting bitch face” meme or not, think about your own facial demeanor and how to respond to others with RBF on Zoom or in the courtroom.

Updated from 2015. Image © istockphoto

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Categories: Communications Skills, You At Work
Originally published May 8, 2023
Last updated July 28, 2023
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Marsha Hunter 2020 Marsha Hunter

For more than 30 years, Marsha Hunter was the CEO and a founder of Johnson and Hunter, Inc., with legal clients in the United States, Canada, Australia, and Europe. Her clients were top ten and top twenty law firms, legal departments at the world’s largest corporations, the United States Department of Justice, and organizations and bar associations from Belfast to Tasmania. Marsha is co-author of “The Articulate Advocate” and “The Articulate Attorney,” her specialty is human factors — the science of human performance in high-stakes environments. Born in Montana and raised in the American West, she lives in New Mexico.

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