Ciência-IUL
Publicações
Descrição Detalhada da Publicação
Tears evoke the intention to offer social support: A systematic investigation of the interpersonal effects of emotional crying across 41 countries
Título Revista
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology
Ano (publicação definitiva)
2021
Língua
Inglês
País
Estados Unidos da América
Mais Informação
Web of Science®
Scopus
Google Scholar
Abstract/Resumo
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.
Agradecimentos/Acknowledgements
--
Palavras-chave
Emotional crying,Emotional tears,Attachment,Cross-cultural,Social support
Classificação Fields of Science and Technology
- Psicologia - Ciências Sociais
Registos de financiamentos
Referência de financiamento | Entidade Financiadora |
---|---|
509993-2018 | Open University of Israel |
UID/PSI/03125/2020 | Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia |
PPN/BEK/2019/1/00092/DEC/1 | Narodowa Agencja Wymiany Akademickiej |
2015/19/D/HS6/00641 | Narodowe Centrum Nauki |
2019/35/B/HS6/00528 | Narodowe Centrum Nauki |
2017-1.2.1-NKP-2017-00002 | -- |
FK128614 | Nemzeti Kutatási Fejlesztési és Innovációs Hivatal |
Dados de Investigação Relacionados
Esta publicação está associada ao(s) registo(s) de dados de investigação seguinte(s):
Contribuições para os Objetivos do Desenvolvimento Sustentável das Nações Unidas
Com o objetivo de aumentar a investigação direcionada para o cumprimento dos Objetivos do Desenvolvimento Sustentável para 2030 das Nações Unidas, é disponibilizada no Ciência-IUL a possibilidade de associação, quando aplicável, dos artigos científicos aos Objetivos do Desenvolvimento Sustentável. Estes são os Objetivos do Desenvolvimento Sustentável identificados pelo(s) autor(es) para esta publicação. Para uma informação detalhada dos Objetivos do Desenvolvimento Sustentável, clique aqui.