Ever cried while flying? Well, you’re not the only one.

According to various “informal” surveys, as many as half of passengers have experienced heightened emotions on an airplane.

One such survey was via Virgin Atlantic, where 55% of passengers found themselves weeping while in the air, with 41% of the men admitting to burying themselves in blankets to hide their weepy ways, explains Curiosity:

While unscientific and difficult to verify, the survey adds to anecdotal evidence posed by This American Life and The New York Times to suggest that crying more on airplanes is, in fact, a thing.

So much so, in fact, that Virgin Atlantic decided to issue “emotional health” warnings ahead of movies that you wouldn’t even think of as tearjerkers.

The Guardian even gave airplane criers a name: the “mile high blub club.”

Errr, okay.

The reason? A study from the Netherlands found that “the main reasons most adults cry in public have to do with feelings of separation, loneliness, or powerlessness”.

Now, add 30 000 feet in a confined space and it’s obvious those emotions can get a little heightened – get it?

But a few years later, a “rare academic article” on the “mile high blub club” phenomenon got more specific. Published in the French journal Écranosphère, Author Stephen Groening argued that:

[A]irline passengers cry during movies because of the way they’re set up: the movie screen is usually close to your face, and the use of headphones makes the film especially intimate and personal.

According to Groening, that intimacy bears most of the responsibility for heightening your emotions in a plane seat.

Add to that the intimacy you feel with other passengers who are having the same in-flight experience as you, plus the intimacy themes that most in-flight romantic comedies explore, and you have a recipe for tears.

And there I just thought it was me being homesick.

If you want a real reason to cry, check out Flight Centre’s birthday specials for some pretty spectacular deals. At least they’ll be some happy tears.

[source:curiosity]