engleski

Are there any beneficial effects of crying? The case of pain perception and mood

Previous research on the effects of crying on different aspects of well-being yielded mixed results. For example, retrospective self-report studies showed that mood improvement following crying was reported by a significantly larger percentage of participants in comparison to those reporting mood deterioration. However, diary and quasi-experimental studies showed no effects or even significant detrimental effects of crying on mood. Finally, only one quasi- experimental study showed decreases in overall negative mood, but only after a somehow longer time period following crying. Nevertheless, the observed positive effects of crying on well- being found in some of the studies deserve additional attention. To determine whether crying influences pain perception, as a potential mechanism at the basis of its putative effects on well-being, and whether it affects tension-related aspect of mood rather than negative mood in general, we conducted two laboratory studies, in which we exposed participants to pain induction procedures (electric shock in Study 1 and cold pressor in Study 2) after they had watched a sad movie. In study 1 crying was elicited in 28 out of 57 participants and in study 2 it was elicited in 49 out of 69 participants. In addition to baseline and one immediate post-crying mood evaluation, in study 2 we repeated the pain induction procedure and mood measurements two more times. Crying failed to predict changes on all measures of pain perception. It also did not influence overall mood improvement over longer time period. However, crying specifically facilitated the improvement of the tension- related aspects of mood.

Crying ; Tears ; Mood ; Pain

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