**Cross Cultural Tears - Overview** ___________ **For detailed project description see:** https://osf.io/m6sgv/ _______ **I. Abstract** Emotional tears are uniquely human and have fascinated scholars across several decades (Vingerhoets, 2013). Some researchers argue that tearful crying played a significant role in the evolution of humankind with regard to social development and solidarity (Walter, 2006). Recent years have seen an increased interest in exploring the interpersonal effects of human tears (see Gračanin, Bylsma, & Vingerhoets, 2018 for a review), with findings that emotional tears foster approach or support behavior (Gračanin, Krahmer, Rinck, & Vingerhoets, 2018) and crying individuals being evaluated as more communal (e.g., Zickfeld, van de Ven, Schubert, & Vingerhoets, 2018). These findings generally fit the hypothesis that emotional tears constitute a social act, promote social bonding and fulfill an attachment function (Nelson, 2005; Bowlby, 1982; Gračanin, Bylsma, et al., 2018; Murube, Murube, & Murube, 1999; Radcliffe-Brown, 1922; Vingerhoets, 2013). The present projects aims to answer the question whether emotional tears present a fundamental form of solidarity and bonding and whether the findings on increased attributions of warmth and higher approach intentions for tearful individuals replicate across a number of diverse contexts. **II. Main Goals** We want to examine: I. The universality of emotional crying as an attachment signal. II. Possible cultural differences with regard to content of emotional crying, social situation or individual or group characteristics of the crying person. The final manuscript will be send to a high-impact outlet reflecting the quality of the project. We will use a registered report format. Thus, we will first write up a manuscript including Introduction, Methods and planned Analysis, which then get reviewed at Stage I. If accepted, we execute the project as specified and submit the Stage II manuscript. The manuscript will get accepted regardless of the final results (if we adhere to the pre-specified analysis plan). For more information see: https://cos.io/rr/ **III. Participation** In order to sign up for the project please use the following form: https://goo.gl/forms/somMC5utxMURRv3L2 **IV. Authorship** Co-authorship is warranted under the following conditions: - Translation/Data collection (n >= 80) + Revision & Acceptance of Manuscript OR - Other significant contribution (including coordination, statistical analyses etc.) + Revision & Acceptance of Manuscript The project leaders (Janis Zickfeld, Niels van de Ven, Ad Vingerhoets, Olivia Pich, Thomas Schubert) will write up the first version of the manuscript and send around drafts. The project leaders will appear as the first authors and all other collaborators are ordered randomly after that. If no usable data is provided collaborators are dropped from the final manuscript (if they don't provide other substantial contributions). **V. Method** *For a more detailed project description see the following document: .* We employ a 2 (occurrence of tears: tears vs. no tears) x 2 (target gender: male vs. female) x 5 (ethnicity: Caucasian vs. East Asian vs. African vs. Latin vs. Middle East) x 3 (type of tears: positive vs. negative vs. neutral) x 2 (social context: public vs. private) design. We employ a total number of 100 different pictures of individuals posing a neutral face. This collection includes an equal number of females (50) and males (50) and five ethnic groups (African, East Asian, Latin, Middle East and Caucasian). Using a procedure from Küster (2015) we add digital tears to each target resulting in a total number of 200 stimuli. During the study each participant is presented with four targets (always two non-tearful, two tearful) and each target is accompanied by a description of the target's situation (negative vs. positive vs. neutral). Completion of the questionnaire takes around 10-15 minutes and the survey is completed online. **VI. Data Availability** All data files will be made openly available on the project page upon Stage II submission of the manuscript. Project collaborators will have access to the data before before submission to explore or test additional hypotheses. **VII. Target Population** The target population includes in general all normal adults of at least 18 years of age or older. This population can target undergraduates or a more general population if possible to recruit. **IX Compensation of Participants** In general, each location should decide independently what type of incentives they use. This will likely also depend on the type of target population (e.g., students are most often compensated with partial course credit). Please note that we don't have the funding to provide compensation for every collaborating site. Thus, collaborators can use their own fundings or identify an alternative compensation system (e.g., partial course credit). **X. Timeline** March - April 2019 - Recruitment of Collaborators May 2019 - Submission of Manuscript as a Registered Report Stage I. Autumn 2019 - Spring 2020 - Data collection Spring 2020 - Submission of final manuscript Stage II. **XI. Tasks as a Collaborator** I. Submit Study to local IRB II. Translate Materials (using Backtranslation) see guidelines: https://osf.io/n2brj/ see material: https://osf.io/d3wsr/ III. Upload final material to osf. IV. Revise & Approve Stage I Manuscript V. Check final survey version. VI. Recruit at least 80 participants. (normal adults >= 18 years of age) , also identify payment system (see IX Compensation). VII. Revise & Approve Stage II Manuscript