TEARS & CRYING: Why Do Only Humans Cry?

About my guest

Prof. Ad Vingerhoets (1953) studied psychology at Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands.

During his career (with affiliations to Radboud University Nijmegen, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Helen Dowling Institute for Biopsychosocial Medicine and the Dutch Health Council, before he returned to Tilburg University), he developed expertise in the areas of (the psychobiology of) stress, psycho-oncology, emotions, psychosomatics, and quality of life. In 1990 he was awarded the bronze medal of the Finnish society for psychiatry for his stress research.

Prof. Vingerhoets is currently affiliated with the Department of Medical and Clinical Psychology of Tilburg University. He has edited/authored 19 books (on stress, medical psychology, homesickness, love, emotions, and crying) and has written over 400 articles in academic journals. He is the founder and chairman of the Tilburg Science Cafe and is also involved in the organization of the international Tilburg University conference series on Emotions, Health, and Well-being.

His work on crying covers nearly 25 years of research, in which he applied a wide variety of research methods and examined this phenomenon from many different angles.

His publications on homesickness and nostalgia, leisure sickness, but in particular on crying, receive much international media attention and coverage.

Vingerhoets AJJM. (2013). Why only humans weep. Unraveling the mysteries of tears. Oxford: Oxford University Press

Resources and links

• www.advingerhoets.com
• Ad Vingerhoets’sTEDx talk
• The Animal That Weeps
• His book, Why only humans weep: Unravelling the mysteries of tears 

Other episodes you may enjoy:

1. The Upside of Your Dark Side
2. Anger
3. The Art of Fear
4. Boredom
5. Anxiety
6. Why You Need To Slow Down 

Did you enjoy this episode?

With gratitude,

Anna