Why do humans cry?

[Ori]

When people cry, they feel better afterwards, but why is it we cry in the first place?

 

[michel]

When people cry, they feel better afterwards, but why is it we cry in the first place?

Crying is a physical manifestation of grief, or pain - the act of crying, in itself is a tangible demostration and affirmation of how we feel. Therefore crying is therapeutic.

 

[Draka]

Crying is a physical manifestation of grief, or pain - the act of crying, in itself is a tangible demostration and affirmation of how we feel. Therefore crying is therapeutic.

Couldn't have said it better myself michel. Good one. I would include joy as one of the manifested emotions as well though .

 

[michel]

Couldn't have said it better myself michel. Good one. I would include joy as one of the manifested emotions as well though .

Of course.

 

[Cynic]

When people cry, they feel better afterwards, but why is it we cry in the first place?

You know that is a very interesting question. I'll probably do some research on that. In the meantime I would say that crying is something that nature incorperated as a sort of mechanism which helps communicate a person's emotional and mental state to others, through body language. People often communicate stress and other things through signs and symptoms.

It is obviously an emotional response, synonymous with sadness. Meanwhile the feeling better afterwards could possibly indicate that the brain releases natural "pain killer" through the endocrine system, much like the high you get after an intense workout. These are all my assumptions.

 

[SoyLeche]

Aren't there other ways to manifest grief? What is the purpose of tears? Is there any physical reason why when we have strong emotions liquid comes out of our eyes?

 

[Cynic]

Aren't there other ways to manifest grief? What is the purpose of tears? Is there any physical reason why when we have strong emotions liquid comes out of our eyes?

I found something relative to the subject in the "Ask the Experts" section in the November 2003 issue of Scientific American. I've posted it because it might give us further insight:

Are humans the only primates that cry?

-C. Henderson, Winter Park, Colo.

Kim A. Bard, a researcher in comparative developmental psychology at the University of Portsmouth, England offers this perspective:

The answer to this question depends on how you define "crying". If it is defined as tears coming from the eyes, then the aswer is yes: tears appear to be unique to humans among the primates. If you define crying as a vocalization that occurs under conditions of distress, or what humans might describe as sadness, then you can find it in almost all primates.
Others argue that all mammals have feelings, because emotions are the product of deep brain functioning with a long evolutionary history. Some researchers reserve such emotional terms for humans alone and will not use such words for other primates. Some scientists take a conservative stance and say that it is too difficult to tell whether or not nonhuman primates have feelings. Rather than broadly describing particular primate vocalizations as crying, scientists prefer specific names for certain conditions. For example a young primate that is not in contact with its mother produces a seperation call. Researchers also describe what the vocalization sounds like, as with the "smooth early high" coos of Japanese macaques. Or scientists note what the animal is trying to communicate, such as when infants try to satisfy their basic needs for food, social contact, or relief from pain.

When people cry, they feel better afterwards, but why is it we cry in the first place?

Back to the OP... Newborn human babies are fully capable of crying, as a way of expressing basic needs. Why tears form at the eyes? I am still trying to find more information to answer that question. Why do we cry in general? I think this question can be answered through simple observations. Crying as new born babies allows us to express our needs to our mothers, without complex communication. At that time, our brains aren't developed enough to execute complex things such as verbal language. Since it is reflexive at this stage, it might be reletive to the amygdala and cetrnal nervous system (I'm not to sure about this, but further research into these things might help provide a better insight for the original question). As I said before, it is probably a way of communicating our emotional and mental state (and physical). Humans constantly communicate with nonverbal body language, which is a universal form of commication. If say, evolution is real, then it is a primitive form of communication that was implemented during earlier stages of our evolution.

Although I am not an expert on the matter, I hope my input has given you further insight or that it might point you in the right direction.

 

[jamaesi]

There are three basic types of tears. In healthy mammalian eyes, the cornea is continually kept wet and nourished by basal tears. They lubricate the eye and help to keep it clear of dust. Tear fluid contains water, mucin, lipids, lysozyme, immunoglobulins, glucose, urea, sodium, and potassium. Some of the substances in lacrimal fluid fight against bacterial infection as a part of the immune system.

The second type of tears results from irritation to the eye by foreign particles, or substances such as onion vapors, tear gas, or pepper spray. These reflex tears attempt to wash out irritants that may have gotten into the eye.

The third category, also referred to as crying or weeping, is increased lacrimation due to strong emotional stress or pain. In humans, emotional tears can be accompanied by reddening of the face and sobbing — cough-like, convulsive breathing, sometimes involving spasms of the whole upper body.

Tears brought about by emotions have a different chemical make up than those for lubrication. It has been suggested from their stress hormone content that tears may be a method of expelling excess hormones from the body.

It is though that gorillas and elephants cry, also.

 

[Cynic]

It is though that gorillas and elephants cry, also.

I think that it is interesting to say that crying may expel excess hormones. I've heard that elephants can cry also.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Well, tears are neccessary from to keep the eyes moist. But as for crying, I don't know. I personally see no reason to cry. I see it as one of the human emotions on the extreme level. Crying really isn't an emotion, but strong feelings of grief, sadness, etc., are sometimes accompanied by crying.

 

[Druidus]

Dr. Mark Marcell:

Newborns cry (I think tearing develops soon, but am not sure) for reasons like hunger and pain, and later the reasons extend to social concerns (e.g., need for attention). Thus, it seems reasonable to explain the link between crying and sadness as being an extension of the negative associations of the very earliest crying. Early crying is both endogenous (no obvious cause--full bladder?) and reflexive (to stimuli), but during first year becomes "tuned" to the more negative situations.

Crying works in that it elicits responses from caregivers, who then alleviate the negative cause (like hunger). Thus, one should consider crying (and facial tearing) as communicative signals designed to enhance the likelihood of someone coming and taking care of things. Perhaps the greater the signal (louder, shriller cry and more tearing) the more likely the response, thus reinforcing the combination of the sound, tears, and negative situation, and making it more likely one will elicit the other in the future (like hearing someone sobbing causing you to tear).

Perhaps an interesting piece of the puzzle: In the waking behavior of newborns (which is not a whole lot), newborns are largely unresponsive to environment when crying (only other such unresponsive time is during quiet sleep). If much early stimulation is negative from the child's point of view, perhaps crying helps to shut it out.

The most interesting part of the question I think is why tearing? I came across only one article--highly speculative--in which the fellow looked at relationships among crying episodes of adults and found that the only commonality was help--either requesting or offering it. He speculates that tears provide an additional signal in requesting help in infants/children--a conspicuous facial signal--and that perhaps tears are selected for this task because they are already present via their reflexive association to physical pain and ocular trauma (e.g., eyes watering to get dust out).

One thing to tell your insightful youngster is that tearing is also associated with positive as well as negative feelings, and that this might be related to what the fellow above was talking about in terms of a relationship between help and tearing.

Anyway, I am constantly amazed by how quickly one gets to the limits of our knowledge about a phenomenon! Mike