How crying is good for your wellbeing

by Terry Robson September 4, 2015

We have a bit of a prohibition around crying. There is a hint of the negative in the question, “Are you crying?” and also in our quick, “No! I’ve just got something in my eye,” response. Yet humans do cry and we are pretty much the only species to do it and you would think we wouldn’t do it unless it served a purpose. Now according to a new study, there is not only a purpose but a benefit to a good cry.

There is a diversity of views as to why we cry. Some researchers see it as a signal to others that you need support while others see it as a way of relieving emotions. Studies where people look back on crying and evaluate its effect seem to indicate that crying is an emotional relief and ultimately is good for your mood but laboratory studies using emotional films often show a drop in mood after crying. These researchers wanted to resolve that discrepancy.

It seems that somehow crying is a an emotional cleanser and you can boost your mood with a cry.

To do this they had subjects view either the Oscar-winning 1997 film Life Is Beautiful, about a Jewish bookstore owner trying to shield his son from the horrors of life in a Nazi concentration camp, or the 2009 Lasse Hallström film Hachi: A Dog’s Tale, in which Richard Gere forms a bond with a stray dog he finds on a train platform. Both films are well established tear-jerkers.

They found that of the 60 participants 32 cried while watching the films while 28 did not cry. The subjects were asked how they were feeling immediately after the film, then again 20 minutes later and again 90 minutes later.

The mood of the non-criers was not altered after the film or after time. However, the criers experienced a drop in mood immediately after the film but this had returned to normal mood after 20 minutes. After 90 minutes though, the mood of the criers was better than it had been before they watched the film.

It seems that somehow crying is a an emotional cleanser and you can boost your mood with a cry. Apparently ‘a good cry’ is not random choice of words.