A team of scientists from Weizmann Institute of Science, from Israel, demonstrated something never seen before. That men’s aggressiveness decreases when confronted with an odor women’s tears.
It is not a noticeable smell, with a recognizable aroma. But some volatile components of women’s tears seem to have an effect on male brainminimizing aggressive behavior.
This is something that has already been observed in mice. However, a new study published in PLOS Biology, these scientists showed that exactly the same thing happens in humans. This indicates that tears have many more functions than we think. Although, unfortunately, its role in curbing aggressiveness does not go as far as we would like.
The soothing role of women’s (and mouse) tears
It has previously been proven that the aggressiveness of mice is significantly reduced when they smell the tears of females. It’s part of something known as social chemical meaningwhere a chemical, in this case components of tears, modulates the social behavior of exposed individuals.
It is unknown whether cases of social chemosignificance may also occur in humans. Therefore, given that the case of tears in rodents very clear and easy to measurethese scientists wanted to test whether the same thing happened with male and female tears.
To test this, they had a group of men who had to smell or Saline solution or sample women’s tears. It should be noted that they did not know what they were smelling, and that women’s tears had emotional origin. This is important because it may be the emotions that cause crying that imbue tears with components that change the behavior of their companions.
While sniffing the samples, all these men were participating in a game with another man. Each was led to believe that their partner was unfaithful and given the opportunity to act in such a way as to lose money
Thus, it was found that the desire to annoy others decreased by 40% when they smelled women’s tears. But this was observed not only in their behavior. They also passed magnetic resonance which showed a similar decrease in activity in brain regions associated with aggression.
What is all this for?
Darwin was one of the first scientists to be puzzled human cry Like other researchers, he knew that tears serve the lubricating and supporting function of the eye. However, it seemed clear that they also had some evolutionary function, which may have included relationships with other members of the species.
Today we know that we are not the only ones capable of shedding emotional tears. Dogs can too. In addition, it is known that by doing this they awaken sympathy in humans, although there does not appear to be any chemical stimulus that causes this feeling. Could this happen within the species itself, as it happens with mice? Rodents are known to smell women’s tears thanks to an additional olfactory system that humans do not have. Therefore, one would soon expect that the results would not be the same. But they exist, and that explains a lot.
This research shows that emotional tears are not a purely human phenomenon and that, in turn, social chemical meaning This is not just a rodent. They don’t smell the same though.
This also shows that modulation of women’s tears on male behavior may have some evolutionary benefit. Although, unfortunately, the society in which we live shows that this is not enough.
If only women’s tears could completely stop men’s aggressiveness. Or, more importantly. I wish women didn’t have to shed tears over such aggressiveness.
Source: Hiper Textual
