The Function of Tears

According to Israeli scientists, tearful women are a turnoff to men. But how do women feel about men who cry? Researchers are soon to begin testing how women react to chemicals contained in the tears of men.

Our reporter Li Dong has the details.

 
Nature has made the sound of a crying baby deliberately¹ distressing². The sound makes us want to protect them.

Laboratory research has already shown that people react differently to photographs when tears are edited out, or superimposed. It completely changes the appearance of a face and the response it provokes.

But now, scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science have shown it's not just a visual reaction. It's basic chemistry. They claim their tests show that tears of sadness temporarily lower a man's level of testosterone.

Women taking part in the study are isolated³ and shown sad films to make them cry, at which point their tears are collected. For the purposes of comparison, researchers also trickle⁴ saline down the women's cheeks and collect these too. Test subjects couldn't smell a difference between the real tears and the fake ones.

When men sniff⁵ the real tears, they find the women less sexually attractive than when they sniffed⁶ the saline solution. Saliva⁷ tests showed that their testosterone levels dipped simultaneously⁸.

The scientists were surprised to find that this dip in sexual arousal didn't mean that the men became correspondingly more empathetic.

Neurobiologist Noam Sobel is leading the study.

"The chemo-signal we identified appears to reduce sexual arousal in men, due to a chemo-signal that is present in women's tears, and when men sniff this they can't smell anything perceptible but it lowers their sexual arousal. It lowers the arousal that is attributed to pictures of faces, it lowers their levels of salivary⁹ testosterone, it lowers their levels of physiological¹⁰ arousal and it lowers the levels of brain activity in the substrates of sexual arousal."

So, why is it that our tears have evolved a "chemo-signal" to function as a sign of sexual disinterest? According to the Weizmann team, it's possibly a mechanism¹¹ to lower a man's aggression¹² when the woman is vulnerable.

Dr. Robert Provine is Professor of Psychology¹³ in the Neuroscience department of the University of Maryland.

"It's not yet known what that substance is, that's the next critical step. What we have here is some very provocative¹⁴, very interesting information. The next step is to identify what that chemical substance is and show that it, by itself can be effective."

Sobel insists the only reason they haven't previously¹⁵ tested men's tears is because they haven't been able to find any men able turn on the waterworks. But they've now found some good male criers.

So hopefully, they'll be able to discover whether women really are attracted to men who are more in touch with their feelings.

For CRI, I am Li Dong.

1 deliberately   

adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地

参考例句：

• The girl gave the show away deliberately.女孩故意泄露秘密。
• They deliberately shifted off the argument.他们故意回避这个论点。

2 distressing   

a.使人痛苦的

参考例句：

• All who saw the distressing scene revolted against it. 所有看到这种悲惨景象的人都对此感到难过。
• It is distressing to see food being wasted like this. 这样浪费粮食令人痛心。

3 isolated   

adj.与世隔绝的

参考例句：

• His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
• Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。

4 trickle   

vi.淌，滴，流出，慢慢移动，逐渐消散

参考例句：

• The stream has thinned down to a mere trickle.这条小河变成细流了。
• The flood of cars has now slowed to a trickle.汹涌的车流现在已经变得稀稀拉拉。

5 sniff   

vi.嗅…味道；抽鼻涕；对嗤之以鼻，蔑视

参考例句：

• The police used dogs to sniff out the criminals in their hiding - place.警察使用警犬查出了罪犯的藏身地点。
• When Munchie meets a dog on the beach, they sniff each other for a while.当麦奇在海滩上碰到另一条狗的时候，他们会彼此嗅一会儿。

6 sniffed   

v.以鼻吸气，嗅，闻( sniff的过去式和过去分词 )；抽鼻子（尤指哭泣、患感冒等时出声地用鼻子吸气）；抱怨，不以为然地说

参考例句：

• When Jenney had stopped crying she sniffed and dried her eyes. 珍妮停止了哭泣，吸了吸鼻子，擦干了眼泪。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The dog sniffed suspiciously at the stranger. 狗疑惑地嗅着那个陌生人。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 saliva   

n.唾液，口水

参考例句：

• He wiped a dribble of saliva from his chin.他擦掉了下巴上的几滴口水。
• Saliva dribbled from the baby's mouth.唾液从婴儿的嘴里流了出来。

8 simultaneously   

adv.同时发生地，同时进行地

参考例句：

• The radar beam can track a number of targets almost simultaneously.雷达波几乎可以同时追着多个目标。
• The Windows allow a computer user to execute multiple programs simultaneously.Windows允许计算机用户同时运行多个程序。

9 salivary   

adj. 唾液的

参考例句：

• Small doses depress salivary and bronchial secretion and sweating. 小剂量可抑制唾液分泌、支气管分泌及出汗。
• The five pairs of salivary glands open into the mouth. 有五对唾液腺通向口腔。

10 physiological   

adj.生理学的，生理学上的

参考例句：

• He bought a physiological book.他买了一本生理学方面的书。
• Every individual has a physiological requirement for each nutrient.每个人对每种营养成分都有一种生理上的需要。

11 mechanism   

n.机械装置；机构，结构

参考例句：

• The bones and muscles are parts of the mechanism of the body.骨骼和肌肉是人体的组成部件。
• The mechanism of the machine is very complicated.这台机器的结构是非常复杂的。

12 aggression   

n.进攻，侵略，侵犯，侵害

参考例句：

• So long as we are firmly united, we need fear no aggression.只要我们紧密地团结，就不必惧怕外来侵略。
• Her view is that aggression is part of human nature.她认为攻击性是人类本性的一部份。

13 psychology   

n.心理，心理学，心理状态

参考例句：

• She has a background in child psychology.她受过儿童心理学的教育。
• He studied philosophy and psychology at Cambridge.他在剑桥大学学习哲学和心理学。

14 provocative   

adj.挑衅的，煽动的，刺激的，挑逗的

参考例句：

• She wore a very provocative dress.她穿了一件非常性感的裙子。
• His provocative words only fueled the argument further.他的挑衅性讲话只能使争论进一步激化。

15 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。