Everybody cries whether they’ll
freely admit it to others or not. The
reasons why we cry are multiple and
varied. Scientists, psychologists,
and anthropologists have studied
the topic in depth, and here are
some of their surprising findings.
1. People cry for three primary
reasons. When most of us think
about crying, Emotional tears come
to mind. Those are the horrible
sobbing tears or the merciful happy
ones. But there are two other types
of tears (both categorized as
“lacrimal”), Basal and Reflex. The
former type lubricates and cleans
eyes to protect vision. The latter are
associated with environmental
irritations like onions (via the
chemical irritant Syn-propanethial-
S-oxide) or pollen. Lacrimal tears
are essential to clean out debris so
you can see better

2. Crocodile tears qualify as an
unofficial 4th form of crying. These
fake tears are specific to people with
excellent acting skills, of course.
The term comes from the ancient
Greek anecdote about crocodiles
who fake-cry in order to deceive
their prospective prey. Crocodiles do
appear to produce tears, but this
may be due to their third eyelid,
which requires a great deal of
lubrication.

3. Even when you’re not crying,
your body generates 1-2 microliters
worth of tears. You don’t notice
most of this production as they are
blinked away as basal tears. Some
of the tears are even rerouted down
your throat while your body operates
on autopilot.

4. Your nose stops up when you cry
because excess tears come out of
your nose. Each one of your eyes
can only hold about 7 microliters of
tears, and a strong crying session
causes serious overflow. Those
extra tears flood the nasal
passages, which creates a runny
and/or stuffy nose.

5. A neurological condition called
Pathological Laughing & Crying
(PLC) can cause involuntary crying
at inappropriate times. The
condition can be caused by ALS,
Alzheimer’s disease, multiple
sclerosis, or a stroke.

6. In general, women cry more often
than men, but the true difference
may surprise you. The estimated
number of times a woman
emotionally cries is 50 times per
year. Men do it on average of 10
times per year … although they tend
to deny the act on many occasions.

7. Babies average about 1 to 3
hours of crying every day. The poor
creatures possess no other means
of communication, much to the
chagrin of their parents. Babies cry
for many reasons, including hunger,
discomfort, fatigue, discomfort, fear,
pain, loneliness, and genuine peril.
Any baby who cries for more than 3
hours a day for 3 weeks (and for no
reason at all) may have the dreaded
colic.

8. Crying is different in many
cultures. Although babies
universally cry to satisfy their needs,
each culture’s socialization
processes lead to different ways of
crying as an older child or adult.

9. Scientists believe that emotional
crying is a unique human
experience, but some people do
believe that animals can emotionally
cry. The case of Raju the crying
elephant only bolstered those
claims.

10. Scientists believe emotional
tears may be an evolutionary
adaptation. Tears can provoke
empathy or aid from other human
beings. They can foster a sense of
unity among a group of people
mourning the same loss. There’s
also a theory that predators could
have helped protect humans from
predators.

11. “Good” crying really can help
you feel better. Crying can be a
means to catharsis because it helps
you release tensions and come to
new peace or resolutions about the
reason behind the cry. Good cries
are often associated with another
person soothing the crier.

12. “Bad” crying can make you feel
even worse. Crying can make
people worse because of resulting
headaches (from dehydration and
tense muscles), dry eyes, and stuffy
noses. These side effects outweigh
cathartic benefits especially
amongst chronically depressed
criers who aren’t crying about one
specific thing.

13. The reasons for women crying
more often than men are largely
biological. Women have 60% more
prolactin in their bodies than men.
Prolactin is a protein that affects the
endocrine system, which may cause
women to cry more often than men.
Women also have smaller tear ducts
than men, which means their tears
more readily spill over and, thus,
are more visible than men’s tears.

14. The size of the tear disparity
between genders is often cultural.
Women in wealthier Western cultures
cry more frequently than women in
other countries. Simply put,
excessive emotional crying is a
first-world problem of sorts.

15. Tear ducts can become blocked,
causing complications. Blocked tear
ducts can result from aging, injury,
cyst, inflammation or a tumor. This
can paradoxically cause excessive
tearing and lead to infection of the
affected eye.

16. The different types of tears look
stunningly different under a
microscope. A Smithsonian
photographer illustrated how, for
example, onion-induced tears are
much more crystallized than
“happy” tears.

17. A woman’s tears send a
particular chemical signal to men.
One of the things this signal does is
it causes a dip in male sexual
arousal, which is an involuntary yet
interesting means of nonverbal
communication between the sexes.

some crying are not sexy at all

K