(CNN) Good news, everyone! You can now wear your mildly discontented face with some validation.

The phenomenon known as "resting bitch face" is real, according to scientists. Better yet, there's research available that could explain why some people are "throwing shade."

In a study conducted in October 2015, scientists Abbe Macbeth and Jason Rogers from Noldus Information Technology, a company that develops software for observational and behavioral research, used the company's FaceReader software to analyze the faces of celebrities like Kanye West, Kristen Stewart, Anna Kendrick and Queen Elizabeth II, notable public figures who have been known to occasionally wear a less-than-pleased expression.

"We were looking to see if anything popped out," Macbeth said. "Our software is objective. It's not prone to human subjectivity like we are."

What they discovered was that celebrities who had bored or annoyed looks were showing underlying levels of emotions that are not seen in people who don't have RBF.

Reading your face

Here's how the software works: Scientists pick a neutral-looking image of a person — one in which they aren't smiling — and run it through the FaceReader software. The software then registers the face and gives a percentage of underlying emotions it's picking up.

On an average reading, the software will register a face at 97% neutral. But there's about 3% of an underlying expression, Macbeth explained. That 3% is made of emotions that show traces of sadness, happiness or anger, for example.

"We see that people who have this RBF expression [have] double the amount of emotionality expressed," she said. Those afflicted with RBF may show a jump of trace emotions as high as 6% and most of the emotion expressed is of contempt: the feeling that something is worthless or deserving scorn.

Subtle facial expressions like a slightly pulled-back lip or squinting eyes are read as contempt, Macbeth said.

Celebrities with neutral faces are people like Jennifer Aniston and Blake Lively, Macbeth said. Although their faces are neutral, according to the software, people will register Aniston and Lively's faces as happy faces.

Photos: I'll smile if I want to Whether they are lost in serious thought or just don't feel like smiling, celebrity women often get labeled as cold or angry if they don't beam for the camera. Oscar-nominated actress Anna Kendrick, known for playing strong character roles -- and for her wit and intelligence off screen -- told The Guardian that when she was a little girl, a casting director said to her, "Anna, can you smile more please? You don't seem like you're very happy." I wasn't so good at doing that cheesy little kid thing." Hide Caption 1 of 7 Photos: I'll smile if I want to Kristen Stewart is regularly mocked on celebrity websites for her serious expression. She told one interviewer: "The whole smiling thing is weird because I actually smile a lot. ... I literally want to be like, 'Dude, you would think I was cool if you got to know me.'" Hide Caption 2 of 7 Photos: I'll smile if I want to Victoria Beckham rose to fame as one of the Spice Girls and went on to build a successful career as a fashion designer in a highly competitive field. But that is not enough for some in the media, who insist that she smile more or risk being an RBF. Hide Caption 3 of 7 Photos: I'll smile if I want to Actress January Jones played a seriously unhappy woman on "Mad Men," and some judged her harshly for not banishing that persona off screen. In a New York Times profile, the writer felt compelled to note , "It isn't easy to coax a smile out of January Jones." Hide Caption 4 of 7 Photos: I'll smile if I want to Actress Anna Paquin lamented to Jimmy Kimmel that she suffered from a resting facial expression that makes her look "like you want to kill people, or like you're a giant bitch. That's pretty much how I come across" -- even when she's happy. Hide Caption 5 of 7 Photos: I'll smile if I want to Actress Christina Ricci, whose stock in trade is playing grim, disaffected characters -- she's played Wednesday Addams AND Lizzie Borden -- can't catch a break for wearing a naturally serious expression off screen. Hide Caption 6 of 7 Photos: I'll smile if I want to Anna Wintour, a successful businesswoman as editor-in-chief of American Vogue, was famously sent up by Meryl Streep as cold and brutal in "The Devil Wears Prada." A (male) "60 Minutes" interviewer once reminded viewers that Wintour has "been portrayed as Darth Vader in a frock." She politely fended off the characterization. Hide Caption 7 of 7

So what does this mean if you think you have RBF? Is there some hidden amount of contempt boiling up inside you? Some unresolved issues that you need to talk about? Macbeth said there's not a clear-cut answer just yet.

Cultural differences and gender bias may play a role in people's perception of RBF. "Eastern European people are seen as very stoic and not showing a lot of emotion and ... a lot of the people touted as having RBF are women," Macbeth said.

She and Rogers, both behavioral neuroscientists, want to do more with the data than just identify who has RBF. They want to know why some people have it and what RBF means in terms of a person's psychology. Most important, they also want to understand why people react so negatively to a face with RBF.

"We've all heard the anecdotal evidence of people being told to smile more ... there's something that is unconsciously showing up on people's faces when people think they are just being neutral," Macbeth said.

RBF first gained attention when a meme took over the Internet in 2013. That, plus a viral mock-public service announcement on "Bitchy Resting Face" made the "condition" somewhat of a joke.

Is RBF really a thing?

But RBF is a real phenomenon, according to David B. Givens, director of the Center for Nonverbal Studies in Spokane, Washington. He calls the condition blank face and said in studies , subjects judge a neutral, expressionless face to be "unfriendly."

Anthony S. Youn, a board certified plastic surgeon in Detroit, has RBF and said it's a combination of multiple forces.

"Gravity combined with genetics can pull our mouths down. As we get older and our skin gets looser and it gives us a permanent frown," he said.

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When it comes to whether software can detect the emotions behind RBF, Youn said he doesn't know if what Noldus's software is seeing is true emotions. "I don't think they can tell if it's true sadness or bitterness," he said. "I have it, but it doesn't mean I am in a bad mood."

It doesn't hurt to try smiling, though. There's research to suggest that smiling can boost a person's happiness levels. "The expression on our face can affect our mood," he said.

Nevertheless, there are a few people who really want to know if they have RBF, Macbeth said. Since Tuesday, when people started discovering they can get their face analyzed, Noldus Information Technology has received more than 150 photos from people asking to see if they have RBF

Another way to see if you have RBF, or if you will have it in the future, can be as easy as looking at your relatives, Youn said. "The biggest predictor of those who have RBF is if your parents have it," he said.