ENTERTAINMENT
MOVE YOU TO TEARS story by Anastasia Sims photo by Jane Pham Andrew Plummer cries at everything. Not a sporting event goes by
called oxytocin, acts like neurotransmitters and tricks the brain
that his girlfriend doesn’t look over and see him silently shed a tear
into making us care for one another — even if, Zak explains, they’re
during the national anthem — but only when it’s sung live.
strangers or fictional characters.
Anna Blakley loves to cry. On her way home from a family vacation
Entertainment has advanced so much that it’s learned to take
to London, she couldn’t fall asleep on the plane. So, as the rest of
advantage of our brain, says Dr. Jeffrey Zacks, a professor of
her family slept around her, she watched “Happy Feet Two.” The
psychological and brain science at Washington University. The
waterworks began shortly after the main character died. It makes her
“mirror rule,” as Zacks named it, describes how we subconsciously
feel more human when she cries.
copy the expressions or feelings of the characters we read or watch.
Rebekah Malpass thinks crying is a part of life. While she was
This might be why people love when things make them “feel”
studying abroad in Ireland, she wept over “Go Set a Watchman” by
something. If you’ve found yourself becoming obsessed or in love
Harper Lee on a public bus to Belfast. She’s not embarrassed that
with a certain character or movie, this explains it. Perhaps it's one
a dozen or so foreign strangers watched her cry over one of her
of the reasons we have cult classics like “Donnie Darko” and “The
favorite books.
Shawshank Redemption.”
One quick Google search and it’s easy to see there’s an abundance
It’s nearly 2 a.m. on an October day in 2018, and Malpass and her
of movies, books and other types of entertainment that feel like they
friends walk out of a movie theater quietly after seeing the midnight
were made to make people cry. But why do we cry? Why is it that
premiere of Bradley Cooper’s “A Star Is Born.” They are all wearing
when we see, read or even hear something, the floodgates open, and
jackets and pajama pants even though it’s too warm for either. Later,
we sometimes ugly cry until we can’t breathe?
Malpass recalls that even though no one was talking, there was a palpable feeling of sadness.
Paul Zak is the founding director of the Center for Neuroeconomics and a self-proclaimed movie crier. After crying while watching Clint Eastwood’s “Million Dollar Baby” with his wife, he searched for why
“It’s weird that we let things like a movie have so much control over us,” she says. “But I guess it makes sense. Sometimes our own lives can
we cry during movies. His answer lies in lots of complicated scientific
be so mundane that we start to crave something that can actually
jargon that can be boiled down to one word: empathy. A hormone,
move us [to tears].” O&B
orange&blue magazine
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