In the minds of most of us, crying is often associated with some sad moments in life, but it can also be an expression of joy. The scientists from Yale University have discovered why people cry with joy.
Tears of joy often accompany such events in a person’s life as birth, wedding or meeting with a friend, whom we have not communicated with for a long time. If crying with grief is well understood, the nature of tears of joy has remained unclear for a long time. Now a group of psychologists at Yale University led by Oriana Aragon have established why people cry with joy.
It turns out that the tears of joy help restore emotional balance. Regardless of whether we are experiencing positive or negative emotions, our psychological equilibrium is disturbed, so weeping and tears help lead the mind back to its normal state and recover from strong shocks.
In order to clarify the nature of tears of joy, the researchers appealed to the volunteers who had to experience a variety of scenarios, including a meeting with cute kids, a chat with old friends, restoring relationships, and so on. All of them witnessed that crying allowed restoring emotional state more quickly.
By the way, though crying is seen as a sign of weakness, psychologists note that retention of tears is a massive stress to the body. Therefore it is better to cry rather than avoid crying; otherwise you may have an “explosion.” This advice is especially important for men.
