The When, Who, Why, and How of Crocodile Tears: Manipulative Crying is Associated with Specific Situations, Traits, Motivations, and Expressive Behaviors

The notion of crocodile tears suggests that crying can be used strategically to manipulate others. However, systematic evidence on manipulative crying remains limited. Here, we addressed this gap by examining the prevalence of crocodile tears, along with the contexts, motivations, individual traits, and expressive behaviors associated with this phenomenon across seven studies. In the first three studies (N = 2,036), participants from seven regions reported real-life experiences of being manipulated with crying or using crying to manipulate others. Results indicated that crocodile tears are a widespread yet relatively infrequent manipulative strategy, primarily occurring in close relationships and typically intended to evoke compassion or induce guilt. Women, younger participants, individuals scoring higher on Machiavellianism and psychopathy, and participants from lower-trust countries reported more frequent use of crocodile tears. Manipulative crying was also associated with intense expressive behaviors, including exaggerated facial expressions, face-touching, and loud vocalizations. Another set of four studies (N = 4,514), conducted across five regions, experimentally manipulated crying-related behaviors to examine how expressive cues shape perceptions of crying. Machine learning analyses revealed that crying was perceived as most “crocodile” when it involved high-intensity behaviors but no tears. Moreover, intense expressive behaviors combined with the absence of tears improved participants’ accuracy in detecting fake crying. Together, these findings provide a comprehensive empirical account of crocodile tears, highlighting how multimodal expressive cues, as well as social, individual, and cultural factors, shape the strategic use and perception of crying.