Tearing Tears Of Joy: A Contradictory Reaction?

Crying is usually associated with feelings of loss, sadness, disappointment or melancholy. Tears help us express sadness, frustration or anxiety… negative emotions in general. However, there are also situations where we cry for happiness – this can be associated with hope, relief and excitement. It can be difficult to understand this, but it is very likely that we begin to shed tears of joy when we are moved by positive emotions.

But isn’t this very contradictory? How can a negative expression correlate with a feeling of happiness? In the following article, you will discover the answer that several studies have come up with regarding this strange phenomenon.

Tearing tears of joy is one of our most common contradictory expressions of emotion

You cry when you get news that you have been waiting for a long time, when someone opens up to you or when you are surprised. There are many times when a happy event can make you react in this contradictory way.

Crying, however, is not the only outward expression; You may also get an urge to pinch the cheeks of a cute baby or gently bite the one you love. The exact opposite can also occur. Sometimes in the face of extreme sadness, you may smile or start laughing nervously.

These reactions are automatic and have no obvious logic. However, understanding the connection between positive emotions and negative expressions (and vice versa) is important in order to fully understand our tendency to shed tears of joy.

Two common reasons to shed tears of joy

To restore emotional balance

Oriana Aragón, a psychologist at Yale University, has conducted several studies on this issue. Under the name dimorphic expression , her studies evaluate the presence of emotional manifestations that have nothing to do with the feeling that a person experiences.

It is not about the coexistence of a positive emotional state with a negative one. We refer to a feeling which, although purely positive, assumes a “negative” expression in order to manifest itself. In the study that Aragón conducted, she presented positive stimuli to a number of individuals and evaluated their way of reacting.

The results showed that those who expressed themselves through negative reactions managed to alleviate the intensity of their emotions more easily. In other words, she realized that shedding tears of joy was a way to restore balance to an overwhelming feeling. It is as if the negative expression counteracts the intensity of the positive emotions in order to achieve balance.

Now this leads to an interesting question to think about. Why do people feel the need to set a limit to a sense of satisfaction? The fact is that the feeling of extreme joy can lead to some individuals ending up in a state of shock. This consequently impedes their ability to make certain decisions. It is then necessary to restore emotional balance in order to continue to function properly.

To communicate

In addition, tears of joy not only have the purpose of maintaining internal homeostasis, but they are also an important source of communication. One study showed that there is a significant difference between the answers that people tend to offer to others who express their joy by smiling or crying. In the first case, they usually participate in the positive emotions and share the person’s elation in order to prolong his or her sense of happiness.

But in the face of tears of joy, people tend to react in a way that makes it easier for the individual to regulate and reduce the level of emotional intensity that he experiences. In this case, they perceive the person’s emotional flood and then act and contribute to the sense.

People cry for joy and bits of love

Thanks to all these studies and surveys, we can shed light on these behaviors that seem so inexplicable. When you experience a positive feeling (whatever it may be) to an extremely large extent, you are thus forced to react in principle in the opposite way to balance your system.

This explains why someone can sometimes look lovingly at their partner and feel the need to bite him or her or hurt him in some way. Such a flood of love, hope and gratitude can overwhelm everyone to the point where they react aggressively. In summary, there are so many of us compensating for these emotional peaks.

Therefore, you do not need to panic when you notice that you react aggressively or sadly to very positive experiences. This mechanism is completely normal and necessary. Similarly, when you see someone shedding tears of joy, keep in mind that the happiness the person is experiencing is so intense that it exceeds the most natural expression of emotions.

Tears are not a symbol of weakness or drama. On the contrary, they are a direct expression of the person’s great ability to feel; as well as the feeling that the circumstances cause in his body.