# Crying.....Why? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 22, 2004, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crying-why/230463 "2004-02-22T03:52:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![I\_Have\_No\_Legs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/94ad74/32.png) [@I\_Have\_No\_Legs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Have_No_Legs)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2004, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crying-why/230463/1 "2004-02-22T03:52:57Z")
Why do people cry? Is there some porpuse to having water gushing out of our eyes? ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2004, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crying-why/230463/2 "2004-02-22T05:34:05Z")
There are a lot of [theories](http://bulletin.ninemsn.com.au/bulletin/EdDesk.nsf/0/7e050ea2b680e2c3ca256c5a002922e3?OpenDocument) as to why we cry, but no one is sure exactly why. ---
**Author:** ![Drethelin2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/838e76/32.png) [@Drethelin2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drethelin2)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2004, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crying-why/230463/3 "2004-02-22T05:59:22Z")
emotionally, I ahve no idea, but the eyeballs don’t function as well when they are dry, and if something gets stuck there, tears help clean it out. ---
**Author:** ![Black\_Train\_Song](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4da419/32.png) [@Black\_Train\_Song](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Black_Train_Song)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2004, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crying-why/230463/4 "2004-02-22T06:13:02Z")
It’s amazing to me how much we know about the universe or even the world around us, but some of the most basic things about our own selves elude us. A quick guess for me would be something that traces back to childhood, an acting out with the anticipation of being comforted. But you can keep going and say that our first experience with crying would be birth. It’s been a long time now and I can’t recall if I cried with OR without tears when I was born. ---
**Author:** ![emacularius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@emacularius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emacularius)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2004, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crying-why/230463/5 "2004-02-22T06:58:01Z")
It takes a few weeks before newborns start to shed tears when they cry. I recall from a TV show I watched ages and ages ago that emotional tears were different from tears shed as a result of the eyes being irritated. Emotional tears contained different proteins, I believe…the theory being when you get emotional you produce chemicals, so you cry to prevent an overload of those chemicals. Most of what you cry though, doesn’t come out of your eyes, most of it ends up in your nose/sinuses. ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2004, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crying-why/230463/6 "2004-02-22T12:01:40Z")
Possible reasons are discussed at length by Darwin in [Chapter VI](http://pages.britishlibrary.net/charles.darwin3/expression/expression06.htm) of [_The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals_](http://pages.britishlibrary.net/charles.darwin3/expression/expression_intro.htm) (1872). ---
**Author:** ![Uncivil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ccd318/32.png) [@Uncivil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncivil)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2004, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crying-why/230463/7 "2004-02-22T13:34:52Z")
I think we have tear ducts to stop our eyes from drying out. As to why we cry as an expression of emotion, no idea. It is a strange one, compared to say smiling or frowning. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2004, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crying-why/230463/8 "2004-02-22T16:21:21Z")
**Moderator’s Note:** Merged duplicate threads. ---
**Author:** ![gypsymoth3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/85e7bf/32.png) [@gypsymoth3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gypsymoth3)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2004, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crying-why/230463/9 "2004-02-22T18:47:04Z")
there was a thread about this a couple months ago, but i can’t find it thanks to the restrictions on searches (4 letters or more). i think someone said that the shedding of tears is to balance chemicals. ---
**Author:** ![owlofcreamcheese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/97f17d/32.png) [@owlofcreamcheese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/owlofcreamcheese)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2004, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crying-why/230463/10 "2004-02-22T21:43:20Z")
its showing off. seriously. most of the emotion stuff your face is doing is to signal others of your emotions (without speaking). crying is visual, it makes you look a certain way from far off… its dramatic and hard to fake trivially (you CAN make yourself cry, but not like you can make yourself smile). also it makes you make noise to get even more attention. crying is “somethings wrong! someone’s dead! something terrible happened” so you go into the most dramatic mode evolution could come up with… you get noisey and leak and turn red and make horrible expressions and everyone comes to look at what happened. ---
**Author:** ![Arturius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Arturius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arturius)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2004, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crying-why/230463/11 "2004-02-22T21:57:00Z")
> [@owlofcreamcheese](#): > > its showing off. seriously. most of the emotion stuff your face is doing is to signal others of your emotions (without speaking). > > crying is visual, it makes you look a certain way from far off… its dramatic and hard to fake trivially (you CAN make yourself cry, but not like you can make yourself smile). also it makes you make noise to get even more attention. > > crying is “somethings wrong! someone’s dead! something terrible happened” so you go into the most dramatic mode evolution could come up with… you get noisey and leak and turn red and make horrible expressions and everyone comes to look at what happened. people cry in private all the time. ---
**Author:** ![beajerry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@beajerry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beajerry)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2004, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crying-why/230463/12 "2004-02-22T22:19:04Z")
Ok, but here’s the thing: why did people cry BEFORE Carrot Top existed? ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2004, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crying-why/230463/13 "2004-02-22T22:30:19Z")
> [@Arturius](#): > > people cry in private all the time. True, but that doesn’t mean anything. People get aroused when there’s nobody to have sex with all the time.