Body Language Of Crying
Cue: Crying
Synonym(s): Damp Eyes, Teary Eyes, Weepy Eyes, Eyes Glistening.
Description: Eyes that weep due to emotional pain.
In One Sentence: Eyes that tear demonstrate high emotion including joy and suffering.
How To Use it: Use crying to show others that you are either really happy or really hurt. Eyes are an honest signal showing others that you are experiencing intense emotions. Demonstrating pain, can help you bond with other people or gain sympathy if experience emotional of physical pain. Crying has been shown to reduce the level of punishment as it creates feelings of sympathy. Thus, when an authority figure is about to dish out their sentence, crying is nearly certain to be of benefit. Women are likely to benefit most from crying and a first reaction to being wronged is this very condition. Crying is therefore quite common from women facing judge and jury.
Crying when being hit, or being scolded, or when facing authority, often improves the outcome of a situation because it elicits sympathy from the more dominant person thereby lessening punishment. Men are not advised to use crying when facing others as this is usually read as weakness and loss of emotional control. Men are usually permitted to cry only when mourning death.
Context: General
Verbal Translation: “I’m overwhelmed with so much emotion it’s welling up and pouring out of my eyes.”
Variant: Eyes can sometimes be overjoyed due to passion, and love. Likewise, anguish, distress, and bereavement produce so much extra moisture that it makes the eyes glisten.
Cue In Action: When she found out the news, she cried with joy, her baby girl was going to be married.
Meaning and/or Motivation: Damp eyes can have many nonverbal meanings. They can indicate tiredness or suppressed weeping, anxiety or sadness. Crying symbolizes an overflowing of emotions such as sadness from emotional hurt, from pain due to physical hurt, or from extreme joy. However, crying is a universal signal of sadness.
Cue Cluster: Crying appears in a cluster that highly depends on the context. When joy is the cause, crying is accompanied by relaxed and open body language. When crying is due to sadness, closed and tight language appears in cluster.
Body Language Category: Arousal, Emotional body language, Happiness, Physiological signals.
Resources:
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