TY - JOUR
T1 - Tears evoke the intention to offer social support: A systematic investigation of the interpersonal effects of emotional crying across 41 countries*
AU - Zickfeld, Janis (et al)
AU - Zickfeld, Janis H.
AU - Ven, Niels van de
AU - Pich, Olivia
AU - Schubert, Thomas W.
AU - Berkessel, Jana B.
AU - Bhushan, Braj
AU - Mateo, Nino Jose
AU - Barbosa, Sergio
AU - Sharman, Leah
AU - Kokonyei, Gyongyi
AU - Schrover, Elke
AU - Kardum, Igor
AU - Aruta, John Jamir Benzon
AU - Lazarevic, Ljiljana B.
AU - Escobar, Maria Josefina
AU - Stadel, Marie
AU - Arriaga, Patricia
AU - Dodaj, Arta
AU - Shankland, Rebecca
AU - Majeed, Nadyanna M.
AU - Li, Yansong
AU - Lekkou, Eleimonitria
AU - Hartanto, Andree
AU - Ozdogru, Asil A.
AU - Vaughn, Leigh Ann
AU - Espinoza, Maria del Carmen
AU - Caballero, Amparo
AU - Kolen, Anouk
AU - Karsten, Julie
AU - Manley, Harry
AU - Maeura, Nao
AU - Eskisu, Mustafa
AU - Shani, Yaniv
AU - Chittham, Phakkanun
AU - Ferreira, Diogo
AU - Bavolar, Jozef
AU - Konova, Irina
AU - Sato, Wataru
AU - Morvinski, Coby
AU - Carrera, Pilar
AU - Villar, Sergio
AU - Ibanez, Agustin
AU - Hareli, Shlomo
AU - Garcia, Adolfo M.
AU - Kremer, Inbal
AU - Gotz, Friedrich M.
AU - Schwerdtfeger, Andreas
AU - Estrada-Mejia, Catalina
AU - Nakayama, Masataka
AU - Bobowik, Magdalena
PY - 2021/7
Y1 - 2021/7
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
KW - Emotional crying
KW - Emotional tears
KW - Attachment
KW - Cross-cultural
KW - Social support
U2 - 10.1016/j.jesp.2021.104137
DO - 10.1016/j.jesp.2021.104137
M3 - Article
SN - 0022-1031
VL - 95
JO - Journal of Experimental Social Psychology
JF - Journal of Experimental Social Psychology
M1 - 104137
ER -