whether it's during a sad movie you swore you'd never tear up in or a heart-wrenching breakup following your first love crying may seem like a strange physical response to your emotional turmoil why do we start the Waterworks when we feel really sad is there a biological advantage or purpose other than washing your face or streaking your mascara well crying doesn't only happen when you're emotional there are actually three types of Tears basil tears are perpetually lubricating your eyes keeping them from drying out while reflex tears act in response to an irritant like onions or dust
they begin a Chain Reaction releasing hormones from the brain which then trigger a tear response from the glands in the eyelids and these tears help to get rid of the irritant but tears of sadness strangely this leaky face phenomenon is exclusive to humans with a couple different theories as to why and one is strikingly similar to the reason we blush which we described in a previous video here in many cases emotional tears are able to act as a signal to others of our genuine sadness or distress that's not always easy to fake your tears blur
your vision as essentially handicapping any aggressive or defensive actions sending those nearby a signal of need appeasement or attachment from an evolutionary perspective this increases communication with those close to you and ultimately your chance of survival some experiments have even taken photos of people crying and make copies with the tears digitally removed not surprisingly people rated the pictures with tears to be more sad while the ones with out were often confused with puzzlement awe or other Expressions but what about tears of joy well perhaps they aren't so different after all tears of happiness may still
be used as social signals for how we feel and are thought to strengthen bonds between people also both emotions see activity in similar regions of the brain such as the hypothalamus and basil ganglia which just happen to be connected to your tear glands another theory suggests that crying is one of your body's mechanisms to literally shed your stress interestingly reflex tears and emotional tiers have very different compositions emotional tiers have much higher levels of proteins in particular some called adrenocorticotropic hormones which are linked to high stress levels and some say crying helps to release these
stress chemicals from the body but the research here is limited and not yet conclusive so go on have a good cry let the world know how you feel and potentially let out that stress got a burning question you want answered ask it in the comments or on Facebook and Twitter and subscribe for more weekly science videos
