Most of us do it, some more than others. We cry when we’re sad but we also cry when we’re happy. Whether we cry because we’re laughing so hard at someone’s joke and we found out a piece of good news, sometimes we get so happy we could cry.

Oriana Aragon, a psychologist at Yale surveyed 143 adults about the many in which they react to experiences that are good and experiences that are bad. In this study, the subjects were shown babies that varied on their ‘cuteness’, which is based on how chubby their cheeks are and the size of their chins, eyes, and noses. Following this, the subjects were then asked how they felt about each baby and the manner in which they would want to react with the baby.

As a result of this study the psychologists were able to find that the cuter the babies, the more positively the subjects would react. When the subjects would state that they wanted to be playfully aggressive with the babies, they would calm down quicker and become more emotionally neutral compared to when the subjects did not want to be playfully aggressive.

This research shows that feelings of being ‘too positive’ can interfere with other things such as decision making, and cause people to ignore any environmental threats and act more impulsively. People who are the ones who would want to play aggressively and pinch the baby’s cheeks are the kinds of people that are more likely to cry at their child’s first birthday or when their sibling is getting married. People seek to go back to emotional equilibrium when positive emotions are too strong.

Although some may not cry when they’re happy, for example the subjects in the study that did not have as severe of a reaction as the ones who wanted to play aggressively with the babies, people do tend to cry in extreme times of laughter and happiness because their emotions are on such a high and feel the need to go back to equilibrium through tears.