Students looking for an easy way to let off steam after a Valentine's Day heartbreak may have to search a bit harder than they thought. The process of shedding tears, long touted as a traditional cure for tragedy, might not be the best way to cheer up. According to recent research, for some, crying could be more harmful than helpful.
Although commonly perceived as a cathartic behavior, crying may actually cause additional emotional distress in some individuals, according to psychological research published by researchers from the University of South Florida and Tilberg University of the Netherlands in the December 2008 issue of "Current Directions in Psychological Science."
The researchers found that although popular articles and scientific surveys have promoted the benefits of crying for decades, no definitive evidence backs up the theory. In examining raw data, researchers discovered that this conventional wisdom position might not always hold true. For some people, they discovered, crying can be therapeutic, but for others it may actually exacerbate stress.
The study, which analyzed over 3,000 claims of crying episodes, found mixed reports of emotion after shedding tears; while one-third of the participants expressed feeling better after crying, one-tenth reported feeling significantly worse.
Junior Angela Lam, for one, does not equate crying with catharsis. "I usually don't feel any better after crying because I know I didn't fix anything," Lam said.
According to Tufts postgraduate counseling intern and clinical psychologist Christopher Willard, the idea that crying affects different types of people -- for example, men and women -- in different ways is a culturally bound theory that has no genetic basis.
"The more I read and watch people, the more convinced I am that culture is far more powerful than we give it credit for and that it's often as difficult to change as genetics," Willard said.
Psychological research has long confirmed that women are more likely to break down and shed tears more easily and more frequently than men. Not all women agree that crying leads to relief, though. Some female students expressed reluctance to reveal their emotions.
Sophomore Jessica Zhang wishes she could cry more often. Though Zhang said she can cry while watching heart-stirring movies, she finds it harder to do so when dealing with more serious matters.
"I think it could help me to cry when I'm upset, because I would probably feel a lot better," she said. "But I'm not really used to showing my emotions."
On the other side, some male students at Tufts are conflicted on whether or not men should cry. Several referred to a "macho stigma," which recently became a topic of discussions after the Australian Open tennis final last month, when Roger Federer was caught crying on camera after his loss to Rafael Nadal. Equal-rights bloggers hailed the famous male's tear shedding as a powerful message to men all over the world that it's OK for men to cry. Others, however, claimed that Federer's show of emotion was a distraction from Nadal's victory.
Sophomore Josh Aschheim suggests that, in certain situations, crying is both useful and appropriate for males and females alike, and that the negative stigma surrounding visible display of emotion in males is more of a myth than reality.
"If it's something really serious that's making you upset, like a death, or say you've hurt someone's feelings, then crying is usually cathartic," Aschheim said. "And I honestly feel that it's OK for guys to cry in front of other guys."
Not all would agree with that, though. Sophomore Andrew Milgroom feels that although it is socially acceptable for men to reference having cried in the past, most are still embarrassed to cry in front of friends or in public.
"In a moment when guys are sad in front of other people, I think they're usually inclined to hold it in," Milgroom said.
Sophomore Chas Morrison believes that although there is still a stigma against men crying freely in a public setting, it is less pervasive today than it was 50 years ago.
"During World War II, it would have been frowned upon for a soldier to be seen crying, but now the army has gotten a lot better at accepting emotion and issues like post-traumatic stress disorder," Morrison said. "I think this reflects that we're coming to grips with the fact that men have emotions too."
The University of Florida study also indicated that individuals with mental health problems such as chronic anxiety are unlikely to experience benefits from crying.
Willard agreed that for those with more depressive tendencies, crying might not bring any long-term relief.
"There are certain people who are likely to get addicted to strong emotions," Willard said. "Crying brings relief in healthy doses, but it can become problematic in that it shuts us down if we do it too much."
