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Written By: Agencies | Updated : November 12, 2014 6:38 PM IST
Washington, Nov 12: Have you ever felt emotionally so happy that you cried? Well, there's a psychological reason behind it, say researchers.
What's the connection between tears and joy?
According to the study to be published in the journal Psychological Science, carried out by Oriana Aragon and colleagues at Yale, this is a mechanism used by the brain to restore an emotional equilibrium with expressions. So, when strong positive emotions are evoked or when a particular situation is too overwhelming, an opposite emotion is also triggered to restore balance and maintain psychological health. It is also suggested that strong negative feelings might provoke positive expressions, like nervous laughter during confrontation of some difficult or frightening situations, and smiles have been found by other psychologists to occur during extreme sadness.
Here are the study findings:
Aragon and her colleagues at Yale ran subjects through some scenarios that would evoke negative emotions and measured their responses to cute babies or happy reunions. They found that individuals who express negative reactions to positive news were able to moderate intense emotions more quickly. They also found people who were most likely to cry at their child's graduation were most likely to want to pinch a cute baby's cheeks. (Read: Supressing your emotions can keeps negative thoughts at bay)
Aragon said that the insights advance the understanding of how people express and control their emotions, which was importantly related to mental and physical health, the quality of relationships with others, and even how well people worked together. (Read: Why bottling up emotions may be bad for you)
Source: ANI
Photo source: Getty images
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