is supported by the research program for young scientists and PhD students funded by the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw, Poland [project number: UmoBMF-14/18].

Emotional tears are vehicles for bonding between individuals, even with those belonging to different social categories. Yet, little is known about the reactions they provoke toward members of underprivileged groups such as immigrants or the explanatory mechanisms of their effects. Across three experiments (with 546 adults) using standardized images of emotional displays, we tested the effects of tears on cognitive inferences (of warmth and competence) and self-reported affective responses (such as compassion or discomfort), and both directly and indirectly on self-reported prosocial behavioral intentions toward an immigrant male. Compared with nontearful (i.e., neutral and sad) expressions, observers perceived a tearful immigrant as warmer but not as less competent (except for study 3). They also felt more compassion (but not discomfort) and were more willing to offer an immigrant person emotional (i.e., to approach and comfort) and instrumental support (i.e., to donate money to an organization helping immigrants but not volunteer their time). Inferred warmth and felt compassion (or compassion-related emotions) explained the effects of tears on emotional support and donation intentions. This research highlights the need to study emotion expression in the context of interethnic and, more broadly, intergroup relations and the effects of emotional tears beyond the willingness to provide immediate assistance. We also discuss implications that tears might have for promoting different types of solidarity with members of underprivileged groups such as immigrants.

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Emotional tears are vehicles for bonding between individuals, even with those belonging to different social categories. Yet, little is known about the reactions they trigger towards members of underprivileged groups or the explanatory mechanisms of their effects. Across three experiments (with 548 adults) using standardized images of emotional displays, we tested the effects of tears on cognitive inferences (of warmth and competence) and affective responses (such as compassion or discomfort), and indirectly on prosocial behavioral tendencies towards an immigrant male. We observed that, compared to non-tearful (i.e., both neutral and sad) expressions, a tearful immigrant is perceived as warmer but not as less competent (except for Study 3). Moreover, observers felt more compassion (but not discomfort or trust) in response to tears of an immigrant, compared to his non-tearful displays. In Study 3, we found similar effects of tears on other self-transcendent emotions such as feeling moved or tenderness. Observers were also more prone to approach a tearful immigrant than a non-tearful one, as well as more willing to donate money, but not volunteer, to provide him assistance. Finally, inferred warmth and self-transcendent emotions explained the effects of tears on approach and donation intentions. Together, we demonstrate that emotional tears increase perceptions of immigrants’ warmth, trigger self-transcendent emotions such as compassion, and thus promote more prosocial behavioral intentions. We discuss implications that tears have for promoting different types of solidarity with members of underprivileged groups such as immigrants.

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The relationships between self-report loneliness and the four humor styles of affiliative, aggressive, self-defeating, and self-enhancing were investigated in 15 countries (N = 4,701). Because loneliness has been suggested to be both commonly experienced and detrimental, we examine if there are similar patterns between humor styles, gender, and age with loneliness in samples of individuals from diverse backgrounds. Across the country samples, affiliative and self-enhancing humor styles negatively correlated with loneliness, self-defeating was positively correlated, and the aggressive humor style was not significantly related. In predicting loneliness, 40.5% of the variance could be accounted. Younger females with lower affiliative, lower self-enhancing, and higher self-defeating humor style scores had higher loneliness scores. The results suggest that although national mean differences may be present, the pattern of relationships between humor styles and loneliness is consistent across these diverse samples, providing some suggestions for mental health promotion among lonely individuals.

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