Why do we cry for joy?

Crying is generally associated with feelings of loss, sadness, disappointment or melancholy. Tears help us express sorrow, frustration or anguish. Negative emotions all of them. Nevertheless, There are also situations in which we cry out of joy, emotion, hope or relief. Moved by positive and pleasant feelings.

How is it possible that such a contradiction occurs? How can a negative expression correlate with an internal state of plenitude? In the following article you will discover the answer that various investigations have given to the presence of this curious phenomenon.

Crossed emotions

We cry when we are given good news that we have been waiting for for a long time, when someone opens their feelings to us or when we receive a surprise. There are many occasions in which a happy event leads us to react in this seemingly contradictory way.

However, crying is not the only external expression with which this occurs. We can have desire to pinch the cheeks of a child who awakens tenderness in us or to bite (gently) the person we love. The reverse also happens; Sometimes, when faced with extreme sadness, we unintentionally emit a nervous smile or laugh.

They are automatic reactions without apparent logic. Nevertheless, the association between positive emotions and negative expressions (and vice versa) plays an important function.

Why do we cry for joy?

Restore balance

Oriana Aragón, a psychologist at Yale University, has carried out several investigations on the topic. Under the name “dimorphic expressions” their studies evaluate the presence of these contrasting manifestations. to the feeling that is being experienced.

These are not states in which a positive and a negative emotion coexist (mixed expressions). We are talking about an emotion with a purely positive valence that adopts a “negative” expression to manifest itself.. In the study carried out, positive stimuli were presented to the participants and their way of reacting was evaluated.

The results showed that those people who used negative reactions to express themselves were able to moderate the intensity of their emotions more easily.. That is to say, tears of joy are a way to restore balance in the face of an emotion that overwhelms us. It is as if the negative expression counteracts the intensity of the positive emotion, achieving a balance.

The question that arises is why limit or counteract a feeling of fulfillment? Well then, When faced with extreme joy, the person is overwhelmed, and their ability to make decisions is clouded. Restoring emotional balance is necessary to continue functioning properly.

Communicate

But happy tears not only serve the purpose of maintaining internal homeostasis, they are also an important source of communication. In one study it was found that The response we offer to a person who expresses their joy by smiling or crying is significantly different.. In the first case we tend to join the celebration and share the exaltation, trying to prolong that person’s emotion.

However, When faced with tears of joy, we tend to react in a way that helps the individual regulate and reduce the level of emotional intensity they are experiencing.. More or less directly we perceive their emotional overflow and act accordingly, contributing to downregulation.

We cry with joy, we bite with love

Therefore, many of the inexplicable behaviors that human beings have seem to make sense in light of these findings. When we experience a positive emotion (whatever it may be) in an extreme magnitude, we are forced to react in an opposite way to recover previous levels.

So, When we look at our partner, we can feel such a flood of love, excitement and gratitude that we feel the need to bite. your arm, your shoulder or your cheek. This way we manage to compensate, in some way, for that emotional flow.

Therefore, when you find yourself reacting aggressively or sadly to highly positive experiences, don’t panic. It is a necessary and completely normal mechanism. In the same way, when you see someone cry with joy, keep in mind that the happiness they are experiencing is of such intensity that it surpasses the most natural expression of emotion.

Tears do not show weakness or drama. On the contrary, are a direct expression of the person’s great capacity to feel and the emotion that the circumstances are causing in your body.

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