Emotional crying has been extensively discussed but has concentrated on crying as a result of negative emotion. There are few psychological and neurophysiological findings on the effect of positive emotion on crying. In this study, participants watched four videos (two positive and two negative) evoking different emotions. We investigated whether emotional crying differed in mood and physiological response. Changes in electrodermal activity, high-frequency components of heart rate variability, and the Profile of Mood States were measured as indicators of mood, parasympathetic, and sympathetic nerve activity. Those who cried showed no significant increase in parasympathetic activity compared to those who did not, regardless of the emotion. However, in negative emotion, crying was found to be significantly positively associated with depression and sympathetic nerve activity. In contrast, positive emotion, crying was positively and significantly associated with vigor, but not with sympathetic nervous activity. These results suggest that crying due to positive and negative emotions may be derived from different psychophysiological mechanisms.

情绪哭泣已被广泛讨论，但由于负面情绪而集中在哭泣上。关于积极情绪对哭泣影响的心理和神经生理学研究很少。在这项研究中，参与者观看了四个引起不同情绪的视频（两个正面和两个负面）。我们调查了情绪哭泣是否在情绪和生理反应方面有所不同。测量皮肤电活动，心率变异性的高频成分和情绪状态的变化，作为情绪，副交感神经和交感神经活动的指标。那些哭泣的人与没有哭泣的人相比，副交感神经活动没有显着增加，无论其情感如何。但是，在消极情绪中，发现哭泣与抑郁和交感神经活动显着正相关。相反，积极的情绪，哭泣与活力呈正相关，而与交感神经活动无关。这些结果表明，由于正面和负面情绪引起的哭泣可能源自不同的心理生理机制。