Read it and cry.
Men are less aggressive after smelling women’s tears, according to the findings of a study published Thursday in PLOS Biology.
The research, conducted by the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, found that human tears contain chemical signals that reduce activity in two areas of the brain associated with aggression.
When researchers sought volunteers for the study, most women raised their hands “because for them crying is more socially acceptable,” Ph.D. student Shani Agron, who led the work, said in a statement.
However, the researchers hypothesized that tears do not have to come from a woman to have the same effect.
Men are less aggressive after smelling women’s tears, according to the findings of a study published in PLOS Biology. Getty Images
Previous studies with mice have found that the tears of female mice reduce fighting among male mice, and that male mole mice smear themselves with their own tears to avoid being attacked by alpha mice, the Weizmann Institute said.
Scientists say other research also shows that sniffing tears reduces testosterone.
“Given previous findings showing lower testosterone levels in men following inhaling tears and findings in rats showing that tears reduce aggression, we hypothesized that tears would act similarly in humans; however, we were surprised by the size of the effect in the lab,” Agron told Newsweek.
After collecting tears from six female volunteers who watched a sad movie, the researchers exposed dozens of men to tears or saline fluids.
They couldn’t tell the difference between the substances because they were both clear and odorless.
The men then played a computer game, used in other intrusion studies, with players collecting money that their opponents were trying to steal.
Players can take revenge and make their opponents lose money, although they won’t earn more money for themselves.
Scientists believe that the composition of tears evolved to protect babies from harm. Getty Images/iStockphoto
After smelling a woman’s tears, men’s desire for revenge dropped 43.7%.
These results are similar to the findings of studies involving mice, but unlike mice, humans do not have structures in their noses that detect odorless chemical signals.
The researchers dug deeper by studying 62 olfactory receptors, which play an important role in the sense of smell, finding that four were activated by tears, but not salt.
They also connected study participants to an MRI machine and noted that after smelling tears, the brain regions associated with aggression – the prefrontal cortex and anterior insula – were less active.
Scientists believe that tear material may have evolved to protect babies from harm.
“Babies can’t say: ‘Stop being aggressive with me.’ They are very limited in their ability to communicate, and they are also helpless. They have an interest in reducing aggression and that reflects the sad reality of aggression against babies,” Noam Sobel, a Weizmann professor of neurobiology, told the Guardian.
After smelling women’s tears, male volunteers’ desire for revenge fell 43.7%. Getty Images
Dr. Minna Lyons, a psychologist at Liverpool John Moores University, told the Guardian that the findings were “remarkable,” but people should not jump to any significant conclusions.
“In real life, things might happen differently. Domestic violence target tears may not do much in reducing the perpetrator’s aggression. Why doesn’t chemosignaling work in this situation?” he said.
“The social context of crying is very complex, and I suspect aggression reduction is just one of the many potential functions of tears,” Lyons added.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
