Researchers Look Behind the Tears to Study Crying Many people found themselves unusually moved by the historic presidential inauguration last week in Washington. Watching the huge crowds, we saw laughter, cheers, hugs---but also many tears. It made us wonder why do people cry? Surely tears must be good for us--away to calm the mind and cleanse the body. Yet studies show that crying sometimes makes people feel worse. Three researchers in Florida and the Netherlands recently looked more deeply into the subject. They examined detailed descriptions of crying experiences. Psychologist Jonathan Rottenberg at the University of South Florida says they wanted to study crying as it happens in everyday life, not in a laboratory. The team analyzed information from the International Study on Adult Crying. As part of that study, three thousand people in different countries, mostly college students, wrote about recent crying experiences. They noted causes, surroundings and any people involved in the event. They also reported how they felt after they cried. Professor Roaenberg says the research showed that all crying experiences are not created equal. Crying does not always make a person feel better, he says. About ten percent of people reported feeling worse after they cried. But a third felt better after crying. And a majority reported the experience as helpful. The research showed that people who cry alone may not do as well as those with others around. People who reached out for emotional support at the time---and received it---reported better results from the crying experience. But Professor Rottenberg says those who felt shame or embarrassment while crying were less likely to report that crying had been helpful. Research has shown that women cry more often and more intensely than men. But it may not have better effect, says the psychologist. The new findings, he says, did not show that a person's sex was an advantage of beneficial crying. In other words, just because women cry more does not mean they are more likely to have a "good" cry. The paper entitled "Is Crying Beneficial?" appeared in December in Current Directions in Psychological Science and there is more to learn. Jonathan Rottenberg says the science of crying is still  _ . How did the researchers carry out the research?
They studied crying experiences not only in everyday life but also in labs. They collected the crying experiences of the students at the colleges. They studied the crying experiences of grown-ups from various countries. They noted their own crying experiences and compared with others.