Emotional crying has been described as the shedding of tears resulting from an emotional event and is a universal and uniquely human behavior. The purpose of the present study was to examine emotions and mood changes associated with emotional crying considering crying-related situations. A survey was done wherein a total of 159 participants were asked to recall their recent crying episodes and describe the details of the event freely. Subsequently, they assessed their emotional states and mood changes upon crying. The study identified four types of crying-related emotions namely crying with sadness, crying with sadness and regret, crying with sadness and being moved, and crying with happiness and being moved. The specific episode characteristics for each type of emotion were described. The results showed that crying other than that accompanied by sadness alone resulted in a refreshed mood change, suggesting that mood change after crying differed depending on the emotion accompanying the crying.
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