Research team Monika Wrobel from the University of Lodz in Poland and colleagues published their groundbreaking results in the open-access journal PLOS One. Their research has discovered how the public thinks and feels about emotional tears. The study, titled “The honesty behind tears: Situational, individual, and cultural influences on the perception of emotional tears as sincere,” was published in 2025 and is available under the CC-BY 4.0 license.
The study addresses the nuance of crying as an intricate societal trope. It explores, beyond tears, the sighs, gestures, vocalizations and facial expressions that go with this most primal emotion. Wrobel and her team found that how tears are perceived largely depends on the context surrounding the tearful situation. Their analysis shows that the genuineness of tears is highly subjective, depending on the individual. It’s about context and cultural attitudes around the person releasing the waterworks.
When evaluating these factors, the researchers did get a clear signal. The more power you have, the more authentic your tears are, at least according to this silly trope. This indicates a broader societal bias toward interpreting surprise, emotional outbursts, or other stunting behaviors as honest. Wrobel elaborated on this phenomenon, stating, “Our studies showed that tears are not universally seen as a sincere social signal, because their perceived genuineness depends on who is crying and in what situation.”
The research additionally points to a greater emphasis on gender and warmth in emotional expression. Wrobel remarked, “Possibly, when men or low-warmth people tear up, which is quite unexpected, observers assume that there must be a genuine reason to do so.” This interpretation deeply sheds light on how gender stereotypes and emotional repression can shape perception.
This study adds to the increasing evidence that tears are generally perceived with a social bias. This perspective contradicts the influential assumption that people universally take emotional cues to be genuine. Rather, it exposes both the fertile and thorny ground that’s determined by situational machinations and individual inherent predispositions.
The article detailing this study was retrieved from phys.org on July 16, 2025, and can be accessed using the DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0324954.