Abstract
ABSTRACTRecent work investigated the inter-individual functions of emotional tears in depth. In one study (Van de Ven, N., Meijs, M. H. J., & Vingerhoets, A. (2017). What emotional tears convey: Tearful individuals are seen as warmer, but also as less competent. British Journal of Social Psychology, 56(1), 146–160. Https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12162) tearful individuals were rated as warmer, and participants expressed more intentions to approach and help such individuals. Simultaneously, tearful individuals were rated as less competent, and participants expressed less intention to work with the depicted targets. While tearful individuals were perceived as sadder, perceived sadness mediated only the effect on competence, but not on warmth. We argue that tearful individuals might be perceived as warm because they are perceived as feeling moved and touched. We ran a pre-registered extended replication of Van de Ven et al. Results replicate the warmth and helping findings, but not the competence and work effects. The increase in warmth ratings was completely mediated by perceiving feeling moved and touched. Possible functions of feeling moved and touched with regard to emotional tears are discussed.
Highlights
Emotional tears have been linked to negative emotions such as sadness but increasingly to positive events or emotions (Gračanin et al, 2017; Vingerhoets & Bylsma, 2015), especially feeling moved1 (Gračanin et al, 2017)
Our main focus is on replicating earlier findings, but we investigate the role of feeling moved in the social function of tears
A number of recent studies have tested the inter-individual function of tears (VMV; Vingerhoets, Van de Ven, & Van der Velden, 2016)
Summary
Emotional tears have been linked to negative emotions such as sadness but increasingly to positive events or emotions (Gračanin et al, 2017; Vingerhoets & Bylsma, 2015), especially feeling moved (Gračanin et al, 2017). Our main focus is on replicating earlier findings, but we investigate the role of feeling moved in the social function of tears. A number of recent studies have tested the inter-individual function of tears (VMV; Vingerhoets, Van de Ven, & Van der Velden, 2016). Vingerhoets and colleagues (2016) showed pictures of individuals displaying either tears and moist eyes or the same picture with the visible tears digitally removed to US and Dutch participants. These participants indicated higher intentions of approaching and helping the depicted individual when tears were present. Study 3 sampled Dutch participants and presented only one picture of a woman in a between design
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