| American dream | | |
| Celebrating the Republican - and his own - victory, the incoming |  |
| speaker of the US House of Representatives John Boehner's voice |
| choked with emotion. "I spent my whole life chasing the American |
| dream. I put myself through school … working every rotten job there |
| was and every night shift I could find," he sobbed, "later running a |
| small business. And when I saw how out of touch Washington had |
| become with the core values of this great nation, I 25 ." A loyal |
| crowd cheered and chanted as Mr Boehner, chin wobbling and |
| welling up again, finished his speech. |
| |
| Pre–programmed |
| For the audience, it was probably not the first time they had seen a few tears escape |
| down the face of a political figure. Most modern-day US presidents or candidates have |
| succumbed to their emotions on occasion. Former presidents George Bush - both junior |
| and senior, Bill and Hillary Clinton, even Barack Obama, have all been caught weeping |
| at some point. The list goes on. Bob Hawke, the popular former Australian prime |
| minister, became famous for crying during his time in office. Despite his tough-guy |
| image, he cried while talking about his daughter's drug addiction, and his infidelity in |
| marriage. 26 former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher - known as the Iron |
| Lady - welled up when she left Downing Street in 1990. But why do they do it? |
| |
| Most psychologists agree that it is now seen as far more acceptable to cry in public than |
| it was several decades ago. Moreover, says Judi James, a behavioural expert, many | | |
| politicians believe it will increase their support by making people warm to them, which - |
| at a basic level - it does. "Crying has a profound effect on someone. It's something that |
| babies do to get nurture and attention and love, and we are almost pre-programmed to |
| have an empathetic response to crying," she says. |
| |
| Tearful |
| But, she continues, then the intellectual part of your brain kicks in and, for many of us, |
| that includes suspiciousness - especially if the person is perceived to want something. |
| For the British, she believes former Prime Minister Tony Blair began a new trend in |
| politics, when he blinked back tears after the death of Princess Diana. "Because we |
| were all tearful over Diana's death, it was seen as 27 . But the act soon lost its effect |
| as the British began to get more wary of Mr Blair's sentimental displays. He would begin |
| to do the 'blinking back the tears' as a political gesture, and that was when people |
| began to doubt it. It began to look rather contrived," she said. "In the past, countries |
| have been mesmerised by charismatic leaders. But, at least in Britain's case, things |
| have changed, as we are used to programmes like the X-factor where everyone cries to |
| get our votes. As a nation we have become emotionally dulled," she says. |
| |
| Lucy Beresford, a psychotherapist, says the problem is that while what we are looking |
| for in a politician has evolved over time, there is still an inherent contradiction in our |
| requirements. "The thing is we want our politicians to be very strong figures and |
| therefore we don't like the sense that they will fall apart," she says. "But at the same |
| time we want our politicians to be 28 ." |
| |
| Faking it |
| In Mr Boehner's case, Lucy Beresford believes the crying was genuine because it was |
| congruent with his words- he was 29 . And when it appears less real, that is |
| probably because it is, she says, because as humans we tend to pick up intuitively |
| whether it rings true or not. "We can tell when politicians are faking it. We don't |
| necessarily know how we tell but we pick up signals such as facial twitches or hand |
| gestures to the face," she says. |
| |
| Judi James says that the most obvious difference is that politicians may shed a tear, but |
| their 30 . "Genuine tears make us desperate to hide our faces. The whole of the |
| lower face crumples. This is where people go wrong," she says. |
| |
| No politician wants to be caught out pretending, but shedding real tears can also 31 . |
| When Spanish foreign minister Miguel Angel Moratinos cried after losing his post, it |
| prompted the media to comment that he "he had no guts even when leaving". And when |
| Hillary Clinton cried during her presidential campaign, the event was seized on by critics |
| as "proof that she was not tough enough" to make it in the top job. |
| But, undoubtedly, at the right time and in the right place, tears can soften our hearts and |
| make often distant-looking politicians appear real. As a famous French novelist once |
| said: "The secret of success is 32 . Once you can fake that, you've got it made." |
