Great British Bake Off: Is crying contagious?

The winner of the Great British Bake Off, Nadiya Hussain, Mary Berry and finalist Ian Cumming all shed tears in Wednesday's final.
Social media was awash with damp cheeks.
And unnamed members of the Newsbeat team confessed to having a little weep.
So we set out to find out if someone else having a cry can make you start crying.
We turned to science for some answers.

GBBO winner: Lemon drizzle (and tears)

"Tears are part of a physiological response meaning like blushing we can't always produce or control them," Judi James, a leading body language and behaviour expert, told Newsbeat.
The tearful emoji enjoyed a popularity surge in the UK on Wednesday evening too.
Judi James regularly gives her verdict on the Big Brother housemates on Bit on the Side.
"Some analysts claim there are two types of tears, stress or pressure and misery tears and that the content of the liquid can vary but the main purpose seems to be to release tension or emotion from the body.
"Stress tears make us feel better and misery tears [will] gain us social sympathy," says James.

'Emotional contagion'

Psychologists believe we all share emotions through face-to-face conversations, phone calls, emails, Facebook posts, tweets and that this influences others.
Instinctively, if someone cries, you experience more or less sadness and want to help.
According to research published in the US, emotional contagion is "the tendency to automatically mimic and synchronise expressions and movements with those of another person".
It is believed in an evolutionary perspective, emotional contagion is essential for our survival.

Image caption Finalist Ian Cumming, along with judge Mary Berry, shed a tear in the final episode

For example, when threatened by a predator, emotional arousal spreads within a group who are in danger of being hunted.
This helps more of the animals to escape from danger.
Researchers at the University of Chicago observed that rats became upset when they saw other rats in distress, suggesting that empathy is well-known to other species.
The research also believes "emotional contagion" was helpful to our ancestral human beings, enabling them to understand each other before being able to talk or communicate in other ways.