Crying is a uniquely human behavior, the functions of which are at present not completely understood. We hypothesized that tears promote the perception of morally relevant traits and states such as sincerity, honesty, and remorse, which facilitate social bonding and we, therefore, predicted that tears would reduce the punishments proposed for transgressors. Participants were exposed to photographs of tearful people and the same pictures with the tears digitally removed, together with brief descriptions of everyday transgressions (Study 1, N = 71) and crimes (Study 2; N = 359). The dependent variables were the judgment of the model’s emotionality (Study 1), sincerity (situational in Study 1 and trait in Study 2), and kindness, remorse, and proposed punishment (Study 2 only). As expected, models with visible tears were rated as more emotional and reliable and were also judged as kinder and more remorseful than tearless transgressors. However, the more positive perception of tearful transgressors only translated into more lenient punishment in the case of drunk driving. In conclusion, although tears make transgressors appear more sincere, reliable, kind and remorseful, they do not necessarily affect proposed punishments for the transgression.

中文翻译：

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可见的眼泪如何影响观察者的判断和行为意图：诚意，Re悔和惩罚

哭是一种独特的人类行为，目前尚不完全了解其功能。我们假设眼泪促进了与道德相关的特质和状态的感知，例如真诚，诚实和re悔，这促进了社会联系，因此，我们预测眼泪将减少对违法者的惩罚。参与者将看到泪流满面的人的照片和数字化去除泪水的同一张照片，以及对日常犯罪（研究1，N  = 71）和犯罪（研究2，N）的简短描述。 = 359）。因变量包括对模型的情绪（研究1），诚意（研究1中的情境和研究2中的特质）以及友善，re悔和建议的惩罚（仅研究2）的判断。不出所料，带有可见眼泪的模型被评为比无泪犯罪者更具情感性和可靠性，并且被判定为更善良，更re悔。但是，对于醉汉的犯罪者更积极的看法只会在酒后驾车的情况下转化为更宽大的惩罚。总之，尽管眼泪使犯罪者显得更真诚，可靠，友善和re悔，但不一定影响对违法行为的惩罚。