Reasons Why Humans Are the Only Animal Species That Cry

Humans are the only species to actually tear up when they get emotional. Researchers chose to study this topic because there is not a lot of research on this. Why are humans the only animals who cry? The two theories made by the researchers for if crying alleviates mood are that, One is that Crying brings about a catharsis effect while the alternative theory is that crying is a way of seeking help and comfort.

Personally crying does not help me alleviate my mood, it just keeps me in a bad mood, but most of my family and friends say crying helps them release built up emotions. Also something i want to focus on is how they never go into how you can cry when you are happy or really mad. I found a study where they say that we are trying to find a balance of our emotions so that when we are super happy and we cry which is usually only triggered by sadness but we try to get an emotional equilibrium. In this paper i will focus on why only humans tear up and why do we tear up when we are both happy and sad.

Let's start off with the first what are tears? You have three different types of tears; basal, reflex, and emotional. All three of these are activated by different stimuli but are all formed in the same way. Between your eyeball and eyelids sits the lacrimal gland which both produces and drains your tears, but before one leaves your eye in a little drop you blink and spread the tear across your eye coating it in liquid and that is actually the role of basal tears. Basal tears have the job of keeping your cornea, the transparent layer over your eyeball, from drying out.

We do not really know if humans are the only species that can shed emotional tears, this is a competing theory for researchers. In Charles Darwin's Book, “The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals” He writes about an upset elephant as stated, “some lay motionless on the ground, with no other indication of suffering than the tears which suffused their eyes and flowed incessantly. Speaking of another elephant he says, 'When overpowered and made fast, his grief was most affecting; his violence sank to utter prostration, and he lay on the ground, uttering choking cries, with tears trickling down his cheeks' (67). This baby elephant who just wanted to be with its mother was not being accepted by her and got trampled and layed there crying. I do believe animals can cry of emotional tears but the most proof we have of that, as shown, is visual cues, so if it made the human watching sad or if water was running down the elephants cheeks.

Another quote from His book is as stated, “The movements of expression in the face and body, whatever their origin may have been, are in themselves of much importance for our welfare.[.....] We readily perceive sympathy in others by their expression; Our sufferings are just mitigated and our pleasures increased; and mutual good feeling is thus strengthened”(365-366). In a previous chapter Darwin explains how he believes that crying is purposeless, but a scientist by the name of Ad Vingerhoets challenged that view in his book, “Why Only Humans Weep: Unraveling the Mystery of Tears.”

In this he first answers the question of, why only Humans cry. His answer to this is that he believes it is because of our prolonged childhood. Because we are born helpless compared to most animals and our brain keeps developing until around the age of 25, while most animals are already ready to survive and they have the instincts to live in the jungle or wherever. Since humans are largely dependent on their parents when they are young, tears are super important to portray the necessary care and protection for themselves.

For the second question, What are the causes and effects of crying?, He answers this saying “It depends”, very scientific I know. He goes into a chart, this chart says that loss/separation and powerlessness remains the same throughout life from infancy to adulthood, while empathy and morality go up with age while actual physical pain goes down. As the chart says we tend to cry to more positive things when we are older. When humans grow up crying is not just a call for help but to ourselves it lets us realize the ultra social nature of us. Crying is not just a signal for receiving help but also a signal for us to provide help.

Concerning The effects of crying on the individual they say that the effects of mood depend on three factors, firstly, it depends on the person's personality, for example people with depression often said that cryiny brought them mood benefits. Secondly it depends on the situation you are in, when you are crying and people around you comfort you and relieve you it is a whole different story when they instead react with disapproval and anger towards the person crying but still they say, even though it will take longer, that the positive mood after crying will still come. And lastly, how does crying influence others? Ad Vingerhoets performed a study where he brought in participants to look at to completely identical pictures of a women crying and the other without tears.

The study showed that the women with tears got more empathy and people willingness to help but it was only a slight difference. His book and this study by Vingerhoets goes against my last paper about this where in the study the conclusion was that it made most people in a bad mood rather than what Vingerhoets found.