Effects of Crying on Affect: An Event-based Experience Sampling Study of Adult Emotional Crying

Despite being a common and almost uniquely human behavior, systematic knowledge about adult emotional crying remains limited. We therefore conducted a pre-registered experience sampling study of adult emotional crying and its short- and longer-term effects on affect. We observed N = 106 participants for a period of four weeks. Participants used their smartphones to report every episode of emotional crying in their everyday lives together with the crying trigger, intensity, duration, and their positive and negative affect. We re-assessed positive and negative affect 15, 30, and 60 minutes after a crying episode was reported, as well as participants’ end-of-day affect. We found that emotional crying was rather frequent (M = 5 crying episodes in four weeks; total sample of k = 315 immediately and k = 300 subsequently recorded crying episodes), with women crying more often, longer, and more intensely than men. Overall, there was no evidence that crying per se was associated with positive affect (i.e., had a relieving effect). The effects of crying on affect depended on the crying trigger. All effects were short- to medium-lived (within 60 minutes after crying) and had dissipated by the end of the day on which crying occured.