A1 Journal article (refereed)
Tears Evoke the Intention to Offer Social Support : A Systematic Investigation of the Interpersonal Effects of Emotional Crying Across 41 Countries (2021)

Zickfeld, J. H., Ven, N. V. D., Pich, O., Schubert, T. W., Berkessel, J. B., Pizarro, J. J., Bhushan, B., Mateo, N. J., Barbosa, S., Sharman, L., Kökönyei, G., Schrover, E., Kardum, I., Benzon Aruta, J. J., Lazarevic, L. B., Escobar, M. J., Stadel, M., Arriaga, P., Dodaj, A., . . . Vingerhoets, A. (2021). Tears Evoke the Intention to Offer Social Support : A Systematic Investigation of the Interpersonal Effects of Emotional Crying Across 41 Countries. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 95, Article 104137. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2021.104137

JYU authors or editors

Publication details

All authors or editors: Zickfeld, Janis H.; Ven, Niels van de; Pich, Olivia; Schubert, Thomas W.; Berkessel, Jana B.; Pizarro, José J.; Bhushan, Braj; Mateo, Nino Jose; Barbosa, Sergio; Sharman, Leah; et al.

Journal or series: Journal of Experimental Social Psychology

ISSN: 0022-1031

eISSN: 1096-0465

Publication year: 2021

Volume: 95

Article number: 104137

Publisher: Elsevier

Publication country: United States

Publication language: English

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2021.104137

Publication open access: Not open

Publication channel open access: 

Web address of parallel published publication (pre-print): https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/p7s5v

Abstract

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 glueby evoking social support intentions. Initialexperimental 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 projectexamined the tears-social support intentions effect and possible mediating and moderating variables in a fully pre-registered study across 7,007 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 = .49 [.43, .55]. Our data suggest that this effect could bemediated 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 findingssuggest that tears can function as social glue,providing onepossible explanation why emotional crying persistsinto adulthood.

Keywords: crying; emotions; empathy; social interaction; social support; cross-cultural research; international comparison

Free keywords: emotional crying; emotional tears; attachment; cross-cultural; social support

Contributing organizations

Ministry reporting: Yes

Reporting Year: 2021

JUFO rating: 2