A rotor blade for a gas turbine engine has an airfoil, a base integrally joined to the airfoil, and a root integrally joined to the base and mountable in a slot in a rotor hub of the gas turbine engine. The root has a dovetail including at least one contact face that, when mounted, contacts a surface of the slot to retain the rotor blade in the hub. The root includes a neck between the base and the dovetail, and a groove in the neck for redirecting stress in the rotor blade. In certain embodiments, the groove is at a distance from the at least one contact face, has a length less than a length of the dovetail, and/or has an initial non-zero depth at the side of a trailing edge of the airfoil and tapers to a zero depth in the direction of the leading edge of the airfoil.