SMART THINKING
Want to improve your mood? Put on an emotionally charged movie and have a good cry.
Want to boost your mood? Simply put on an emotional movie and have a good cry.
While all animals cry, humans are the only species known to shed emotional tears. And the tears you shed when you’re crying because of sadness or joy actually have a different chemical make-up to the tears shed when your eyes are physically irritated – when you’re chopping onions, for example.
A study by Dr William H. Frey II, a biochemist at the St Paul-Ramsey Medical Centre in Minnesota, found that emotional tears contain more of the protein-based hormone prolactin, adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), and leucine enkephalin (a natural painkiller) – which are all produced by our body when we’re under stress.
Releasing ACTH can be beneficial, as this hormone triggers the release of the stress hormone, cortisol. According to the Minnesota study, crying can help wash chemicals linked to stress out of our body – one of the reasons we tend to feel better after a good cry.
Researchers from the Netherlands’ Tilburg University reinforced Dr Frey’s findings by studying participants after they watched the films La Vita è Bella (Life is Beautiful) and Hachi: A Dog’s Tale – both known to be tearjerkers. They found that the mood of the non- criers was unchanged – but 90 minutes after the films ended, criers reported a better mood than before the movies started.
Another Tilburg University study, conducted by researcher Niels van de Ven, found that crying at work changes the way a person is perceived by colleagues. The study showed that tearful people are seen as warmer, but less competent.