What Makes People Cry? A Preliminary Analysis of Situations that Evoke Emotional Tears

Julia Wągrowska; Monika Wróbel

doi:10.18290/rpsych2022.0012

Julia Wągrowska University of Lodz https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6448-6095
Monika Wróbel University of Lodz https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4326-6154

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18290/rpsych2022.0012

Keywords: emotions, emotional tears, stimulus material, situational vignettes

Abstract

The aim of two preliminary studies reported in the article was to identify the main reasons for crying and to create a set of situational vignettes that would refer to specific situations or events that potentially can make people cry. In Study 1 (n = 61), we asked the participants to list six general reasons behind crying. In Study 2 (n = 70), the participants were asked to identify specific situations in which people shed emotion-related tears. As a result, we selected a set of 34 situational vignettes. Each of them is a short and gender-neutral description of a specific emotional reason that can make people cry and is related to one of the following basic emotions: happiness, sadness, anger, or fear. The vignettes can be used to manipulate the emotional basis of tears in experimental research.

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