Life’s Great Mysteries - Are emotional tears really different from irritant tears?

Last night, Trish and I watched Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (yes, it’s insanely fun—with emphasis on insane). In the movie is a scene where Dr. Dementus tastes the tears of a victim, and he waxes eloquent about the superb chemical qualities of tears of sorrow compared to other tears. And I’ve recently seen memes about this on social media. Is there truth to this? Let’s take a look.

First, we have to consider why humans shed tears. There are three kinds of tears: BASAL TEARS are constantly secreted to moisten and protect your cornea. REFLEX TEARS wash away irritants or foreign matter (like when you cut onions). EMOTIONAL TEARS form when we experience sorrow, joy, or pain. Interestingly, most researchers agree that emotional tears are unique to humans.

But are emotional tears really chemically different from reflex tears? As it turns out, they are. Emotional tears contain various hormones (like stress hormones), as well as various proteins not found in basal tears and reflex tears. The question is, WHY?

It all has to do with human social behavior. While basal and reflex tears serve biological functions, emotional tears serve social functions. Before we understood the social importance of crying, Charles Darwin once declared that emotional tears were “purposeless” because they didn’t seem to serve a biological function. More recent behavioral research, however, has revealed much about emotional crying.

Research on crying at the University of Pittsburgh has revealed that people are more likely to feel better after crying if they receive social support during their crying. The idea is that tears are a visual signal to others that we need emotional support. And, in fact, it may be that the extra proteins in emotional tears help to slow the tears as they flow down our cheeks, thus making the visual signal last longer so that other caring people notice our need for comfort.

An awesome reminder that humans are, at our very core, social animals.

Photo credit:
woman with tears - DepositPhotos