Tears

Tears shed from emotional distress contain different chemical compositions than those from chopping onions or getting dust in your eye. Emotional tears have higher concentrations of stress hormones like ACTH and prolactin, suggesting crying literally helps flush toxic stress chemicals from our bodies. This biological difference means when someone says they need a 'good cry,' they're actually prescribing themselves a form of chemical detox that onion-induced tears simply can't provide.

Charles Darwin called emotional tears one of the most puzzling aspects of human evolution, unable to explain why natural selection would preserve such a seemingly disadvantageous trait that reveals vulnerability to predators and competitors. He noted that while many animals produce tears for eye lubrication, humans appear to be the only species that weeps from emotion. Modern evolutionary biologists now theorize that tears evolved as honest signals of distress that elicit help and strengthen social bonds—making vulnerability a survival advantage.

In ancient Rome, professional mourners called 'praeficae' were hired to cry at funerals because genuine tears were considered so precious they shouldn't be wasted on social obligations. Conversely, many cultures have historically forbidden men from crying—Spartan boys were beaten if caught weeping, and the phrase 'boys don't cry' echoes through countless societies. This creates a paradox where the same biological response is simultaneously treasured as sacred and condemned as shameful, depending entirely on who sheds it.

The phrase 'crocodile tears' comes from the medieval belief that crocodiles wept while eating their victims, but real crocodiles do produce tears—just not from sadness. They tear up while eating because the vigorous jaw movements stimulate their tear glands, creating fake emotion through pure mechanics. Ironically, this makes crocodiles more honest than many humans who have weaponized tears throughout history, from Anne Boleyn allegedly crying her way out of treason charges to modern courtroom strategies.

Seeing someone cry activates mirror neurons in observers' brains, often triggering tears in witnesses even when they don't know why the person is crying. This neurological empathy response is so powerful that actors often use genuine emotional memories to produce real tears, knowing that authentic crying will create deeper audience connection than fake tears. Researchers have found that people can distinguish between genuine and forced tears with surprising accuracy, even in photographs.

The average human produces about 1-2 liters of tears per year, but this varies dramatically across cultures and life stages—with women crying an average of 64 times per year compared to men's 17 times in Western societies. In Japan, 'rui-katsu' or 'tear-seeking' has become a wellness trend where people gather specifically to cry together while watching sad movies, treating tears as a form of emotional exercise. Some entrepreneurs have even created 'crying rooms' in office buildings, monetizing the human need for cathartic release in our emotion-suppressing work culture.