You're happy, you cry. Makes sense?

Factual Questions
1

I’ll try this once again. Didn’t elicit too many responses/too much interest the last time around (actually shed a few tears over that at the time). I know that the primary function of tears is to lubricate the eye. But my question is: Why do people cry when they are happy? Do good news, happy events dessicate the cornea:)? And, for that matter, why do we cry when we’re sad?

2

My guess is that crying is a way for us to relieve stress. The only times I’ve cried due to happiness have been when the happiness was finding out good news about something I had been really worried about. When you spend a few days/weeks overly emotional and scared about something and then find out it’s going to be ok you need to release that pent up emotion and crying is a great way to do it.

Of course–that’s mainly psychological and I have no thoughts on the physical processes involved.

3

The way I understand it is that sometimes the brain gets a little confused in times of high excitement and emotion. It’s not sure how to interpret the data it’s being given, or how to respond to it. So the brain uses a one-size-fits-all solution: it turns on the waterworks.

4

I guess what I’m interested in is… how it all started, when the first hominid cried, what made him/her have such a reaction. There must be a “primordial” physiological reason. Desmond Morris would probably know…:slight_smile: Any chance he’s a lurker?

5

What made the first homonid cry? He saw a vision of the future of his race: pale, withered husks bent over a computer keyboard, madly pounding away unhelpful answers to serious questions while surfing porn in another window… uh… nevermind…

6

After this, my third attempt, wiping the tears from my eyes for I can now barely see the keyboard, I officially give up, naively confident that it is a lack of knowledge, not of interest, that keeps the otherwise faithful Doper community at bay.

I am grateful to the few brave souls who gave it a try (admittedly with little success:D) and shall hence pursue the truth by other means, which I have yet to ascertain.

7

ROFL, Astroboy.

http://www.hubwest.com/userpages/hubert/mrscience/crying.html

Hmm. Does this help? No, didn’t think so.

If you are seriously interested in this (ie willing to shell out $26), you could try Crying: The Natural and Cultural History of Tears by Tom Lutz.

I mean, really, omni-not, you didn’t look very hard did you? Links to that Tom Lutz book were plastered all over the internet searches I tried. Feel free to purchase it, read it cover to cover, and give us a 2 paragraph summary of the answer to your OP :D.

8

Thanks. Having to work with search engines all day long, I realized that there are a few articles (540,000 hits on Google, among others) on the subject matter, and had noticed that the name of Tom Lutz popped up a good number of times. The answer I’m looking for is probably in Lutz’s book: it’s just that I didn’t really see when I would have the time to go through the 352 pages and thought that maybe some fellow members would have an element or elements of an answer. If I do get to it eventually, I’ll let you know.