Hello everyone! Have you ever wondered why people cry? Sometimes, it’s easy to tell when someone is sad, especially if they have tears streaming down their face. Crying is a unique human ability, and it sends a strong emotional message to those around us.
Humans produce three types of tears: emotional tears, reflex tears, and basal tears. Reflex tears help clean our eyes when something like dust gets in them. Basal tears keep our eyes moist and protected. Emotional tears, also known as psychic tears, are the ones we shed when we’re feeling strong emotions like sadness or joy. These tears contain more proteins, including stress hormones and natural painkillers, than the other types of tears.
All tears come from the lacrimal glands, but emotional tears are controlled by a part of the brain called the hypothalamus. This part of the brain helps regulate our emotions. Across different cultures, people express their feelings in many ways, such as through gestures, posture, and touch. However, facial expressions are one of the most common ways we show how we feel.
Our faces have over 40 muscles that allow us to make a wide range of expressions, like smiling, frowning, or even rolling our eyes. Before humans developed language, tears might have evolved as a way to show strong emotions to others. People who could effectively communicate their sadness were more likely to receive help, which helped them survive and have children.
Babies cry because they can’t talk yet, so tears are a powerful way to communicate their needs. Adults also cry, although not as loudly as babies. When people see someone crying, they often feel the urge to help. This response likely developed alongside the ability to cry, encouraging empathy and sympathy. Seeing someone cry makes us perceive them as vulnerable, which can strengthen social bonds.
While many animals produce tears, humans are the only ones known to cry emotional tears. Other animals might show fear or pain through facial expressions, but they don’t have a signal for sadness like tears. Interestingly, we also cry during happy moments, and scientists are still trying to understand why. It might be because these moments are emotionally overwhelming or because they mark important life events, like weddings or graduations.
There’s still a lot to learn about why we cry, but it’s clear that crying is a deeply human experience. It helps us communicate our emotions and connect with others. So, next time you find yourself tearing up, remember that it’s a natural and important part of being human.
Stay curious!
Keep a diary for a week where you note down each time you cry or feel like crying. Write about what triggered the tears and how you felt afterward. At the end of the week, reflect on any patterns or insights you discovered about your emotions and the situations that lead to crying.
In groups, create short skits that depict different emotional scenarios where crying might occur, such as joy, sadness, or frustration. Perform these skits for the class and discuss how each scenario made you feel and why crying was a natural response.
Use a mirror to practice making different facial expressions that convey emotions like happiness, sadness, anger, and surprise. Discuss with a partner how these expressions might be linked to the urge to cry and why they are important for communication.
Research how different cultures perceive crying and express emotions. Present your findings to the class, highlighting any surprising differences or similarities you discovered. Discuss how cultural background might influence when and why people cry.
Interview a parent, teacher, or another adult about their experiences with crying. Ask them about a time when crying helped them communicate their feelings or connect with others. Share your interview insights with the class and discuss the role of crying in building empathy and relationships.
Here’s a sanitized version of the transcript:
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Hey everyone, Joe here. How are you feeling today? How are these definitely-not-generic-stock photo people feeling? Are they neutral, ashamed, or stoically handsome? Sometimes it can be a little hard to tell. But if we add a few tears to these facial expressions, suddenly these people look very sad. When we see faces contorted and tears flowing, it sends a clear emotional message.
Humans are unique in their ability to cry. Why do we cry? Pain, sorrow, and even irritants can trigger tears. This reaction makes sense when, for example, dust gets into your eye, which always seems to happen when I watch the beginning of *Up*. You produce tears to flush your eye clean. But what’s the purpose of tears when we’re sad?
Humans produce different types of tears. Emotional tears, also known as psychic tears, differ from reflex tears, which are produced to flush out irritants. We also have basal tears, which protect and lubricate our eyes. Each type of tear has a different composition. All three contain salt, proteins, and antibacterial enzymes, but emotional tears have higher amounts of proteins, including stress hormones and natural painkillers, the purpose of which we don’t fully understand.
While all three types of tears are secreted from the lacrimal glands, only emotional tears are controlled by the hypothalamus, the part of the brain that regulates emotional responses. Across cultures, aside from verbal communication, humans express emotions in various ways: through gestures, posture, and touch. However, we often interpret emotions through facial expressions.
We have over 40 muscles in our face that can create a wide range of expressions, such as blushing, laughing, and even eye-rolling. Before language developed, tears may have evolved as a way to signal strong emotions to those around us. Individuals who could effectively communicate sadness were more likely to receive help, which increased their chances of survival and reproduction.
While we can’t know for certain, this theory makes evolutionary sense. This is also true for crying babies. Babies can’t express their needs verbally, so tears serve as an effective form of communication. Interestingly, adults continue to cry as well. While adults may not cry as loudly as babies, we still shed tears.
Studies indicate that when people see tears, they often feel compelled to help. This response likely evolved alongside tears, fostering feelings of empathy and sympathy. We tend to perceive a crying person as vulnerable, which can strengthen social bonds.
It’s worth noting that while many animals produce tears, humans are the only ones known to cry emotional tears. Other animals may display distinct facial expressions to convey fear or pain, but no other species has a signal for sadness quite like tears.
It’s also true that we cry during happy moments, and scientists are still exploring why this happens. Perhaps it’s simply an overwhelming emotional experience, or it could be that we cry during significant moments, like weddings or graduations, which often signify endings or reunions.
There’s still much to learn about crying, but it’s clear that it’s one of the most human experiences we share.
Stay curious!
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This version maintains the essence of the original transcript while removing any informal language and ensuring clarity.
Crying – The act of shedding tears as a response to emotions such as sadness or happiness. – When Sarah watched the sad movie, she couldn’t help crying because the story was so touching.
Tears – Salty liquid produced by glands in the eyes, often as a response to emotions or irritation. – Tears rolled down his cheeks as he laughed at the funny joke his friend told.
Emotions – Strong feelings that arise in response to certain situations, like happiness, anger, or sadness. – Emotions can be complex, and sometimes it’s hard to understand why we feel a certain way.
Humans – Members of the species Homo sapiens, characterized by advanced cognitive abilities and complex emotions. – Unlike many animals, humans have the ability to express a wide range of emotions through language and art.
Facial – Related to the face, often used to describe expressions or features. – Her facial expression changed from surprise to joy when she heard the good news.
Expressions – Ways of showing feelings or thoughts through facial movements, words, or actions. – The teacher could tell the students were confused by their puzzled expressions.
Babies – Young humans who are in the early stages of development and rely on adults for care. – Babies often communicate their needs through crying since they cannot speak yet.
Empathy – The ability to understand and share the feelings of another person. – Showing empathy can help build strong friendships because it shows you care about others’ feelings.
Hormones – Chemical substances produced in the body that regulate various physiological processes and emotions. – During puberty, hormones can cause teenagers to experience intense emotions and mood swings.
Communication – The process of sharing information, thoughts, or feelings between people through speaking, writing, or other methods. – Effective communication is important in resolving conflicts and building strong relationships.
