6533b85dfe1ef96bd12be79e
RESEARCH PRODUCT
Tears evoke the intention to offer social support: A systematic investigation of the interpersonal effects of emotional crying across 41 countries
Tara Bulut AllredAgustín IbáñezAmparo CaballeroAnouk KolenTerri Tan Su-mayShamsul HaqueElif Gizem Demirag BurakJozef BavolarAd J. J. M. VingerhoetsPhakkanun ChitthamAndreas SchwerdtfegerChew Wei OngMarie StadelSadia MalikCoby MorvinskiVictoria SchönefeldSuzanne L. K. StewartJohn Jamir Benzon R. ArutaMaría Del Carmen EspinozaChristine Joy A. BalladaDarío PáezMasataka NakayamaNatália KocselAdolfo M. GarcíaMagdalena BobowikJanis ZickfeldTuğba Seda ÇOlakHans IjzermanHans IjzermanJordane BoudesseulKrystian BarzykowskiElke SchroverGonzalo Martínez-zelayaDiogo Conque Seco FerreiraSergio VillarLeigh Ann VaughnLeah SharmanPhilip C. MefohPatrícia ArriagaInbal KremerTobias EbertFranziska A. StankeJonna K. VuoskoskiEleimonitria LekkouNao MaeuraAsmir GračaninArgiro VatakisKristina SesarMustafa EşkisuYaniv ShaniKitty DumontBruno VerschuereRebecca ShanklandThomas W. SchubertThomas W. SchubertFriedrich M. GötzFriedrich M. GötzAgata BlautRené ŠEbeňaNadyanna M. MajeedNino Jose MateoEric J. VanmanEunsoo ChoiPilleriin SikkaPilleriin SikkaGyöngyi KökönyeiGyöngyi KökönyeiHarry ManleyArta DodajJosé J. PizarroOlivia PichKenichi ItoIrina KonovaMagdalena ŚMiejaNekane BasabeJulie KarstenBraj BhushanCatalina Estrada-mejiaLjiljana B. LazarevićAndree HartantoJana B. BerkesselPeter J. RentfrowPilar CarreraSari MentserSari MentserMaría Josefina EscobarUğur DoğanSebastian L. SchorchNiels Van De VenAnna TcherkassofPaul E. JoseWee Qin NgWataru SatoYukiko UchidaSergio BarbosaShlomo HareliMichelle Xue ZhengRavit NussinsonRavit NussinsonIgor KardumAsil Ali ÖZdoğruYang WuNina F. BaltHenna-riikka PeltolaDiogo MartinsYansong LiPavol KačmárZahir VallyZahir VallyCharles T. OrjiakorJudith K. Danielssubject
Sociology and Political ScienceEmotionsPersonal distressAttachment050109 social psychology:Ciências Sociais::Psicologia [Domínio/Área Científica]Relaciones interpersonalesEmotional tearsSocial support0302 clinical medicineEmotional crying ; Emotional tears ; Attachment ; Cross-cultural ; Social supportPsychologyFaces10. No inequalitymedia_commonInclusionEmociones y sentimientosCrying05 social sciencesImpactFeelingmedicine.symptomPsychologySocial psychologySocial Psychologymedia_common.quotation_subjectEmpathyCryingInterpersonal relationsEquivalence050105 experimental psychologyExposureSocial supportInterpersonal relationship03 medical and health sciencesmedicine0501 psychology and cognitive sciencesValence (psychology)Empathic concernDistressIndividualsAttachment; Cross-cultural; Emotional crying; Emotional tears; Social supportCross-culturalPsicologíaEmotional cryingPsychologieLlantoEmpathyEmpatía030217 neurology & neurosurgerydescription
Tearful crying is a ubiquitous and likely uniquely human phenomenon. Scholars have argued that emotional tears serve an attachment function: Tears are thought to act as a social glue by evoking social support intentions. Initial experimental studies supported this proposition across several methodologies, but these were conducted almost exclusively on participants from North America and Europe, resulting in limited generalizability. This project examined the tears-social support intentions effect and possible mediating and moderating variables in a fully pre-registered study across 7007 participants (24,886 ratings) and 41 countries spanning all populated continents. Participants were presented with four pictures out of 100 possible targets with or without digitally-added tears. We confirmed the main prediction that seeing a tearful individual elicits the intention to support, d = 0.49 [0.43, 0.55]. Our data suggest that this effect could be mediated by perceiving the crying target as warmer and more helpless, feeling more connected, as well as feeling more empathic concern for the crier, but not by an increase in personal distress of the observer. The effect was moderated by the situational valence, identifying the target as part of one's group, and trait empathic concern. A neutral situation, high trait empathic concern, and low identification increased the effect. We observed high heterogeneity across countries that was, via split-half validation, best explained by country-level GDP per capita and subjective well-being with stronger effects for higher-scoring countries. These findings suggest that tears can function as social glue, providing one possible explanation why emotional crying persists into adulthood.
| year | journal | country | edition | language |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021-07-01 |