Tears evoke the intention to offer social support: A systematic investigation of the interpersonal effects of emotional crying across 41 countries

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.</p

Tears evoke the intention to offer social support: A systematic investigation of the interpersonal effects of emotional crying across 41 countries

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.Fil: Zickfeld, Janis H.. University Aarhus; DinamarcaFil: van de Ven, Niels. Tilburg University; Países BajosFil: Pich, Olivia. University of Oslo; NoruegaFil: Schubert, Thomas W.. University of Oslo; Noruega. INSTITUTO UNIVERSITARIO DE LISBOA (IUL);Fil: Berkessel, Jana B.. Universität Mannheim; AlemaniaFil: Pizarro, José J.. Universidad del País Vasco; EspañaFil: Bhushan, Braj. Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur; IndiaFil: Mateo, Nino Jose. de la Salle University; FilipinasFil: Barbosa, Sergio. Universidad Colegio Mayor de Nuestra Señora del Rosario; ColombiaFil: Sharman, Leah. The University of Queensland; AustraliaFil: Kökönyei, Gyöngyi. Semmelweis University; Hungría. ELTE Eötvös Loránd University; HungríaFil: Schrover, Elke. Tilburg University; Países BajosFil: Kardum, Igor. University of Rijeka; CroaciaFil: Aruta, John Jamir Benzon. de la Salle University; FilipinasFil: Lazarevic, Ljiljana B.. University Of Belgrade; SerbiaFil: Escobar, María Josefina. Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez; ChileFil: Stadel, Marie. Rijksuniversiteit Groningen; Países BajosFil: Arriaga, Patrícia. INSTITUTO UNIVERSITARIO DE LISBOA (IUL);Fil: Dodaj, Arta. University of Zadar; CroaciaFil: Shankland, Rebecca. Universite Grenoble Alpes; FranciaFil: Majeed, Nadyanna M.. Singapore Management University; SingapurFil: Li, Yansong. Nanjing University; ChinaFil: Lekkou, Eleimonitria. Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences; GreciaFil: Hartanto, Andree. Singapore Management University; SingapurFil: Özdoğru, Asil A.. Üsküdar Üniversitesi; TurquíaFil: Vaughn, Leigh Ann. Ithaca College; Estados UnidosFil: del Carmen Espinoza, Maria. Universidad de Lima; PerúFil: Caballero, Amparo. Universidad Autónoma de Madrid; EspañaFil: Kolen, Anouk. Tilburg University; Países BajosFil: García, Adolfo Martín. Universidad de San Andrés. Departamento de Matemáticas y Ciencias; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

Cross Cultural Tears - A Systematic Investigation of the Interpersonal Effects of Emotional Crying Across Different Cultural Backgrounds

The present project wants to examine the importance of emotional crying as an attachment behaviour and its fundamental role across a number of diverse cultures

Cross Cultural Tears - A Systematic Investigation of the Interpersonal Effects of Emotional Crying Across Different Cultural Backgrounds

The present project wants to examine the importance of emotional crying as an attachment behaviour and its fundamental role across a number of diverse cultures