Crying

Discussion in 'General Science & Technology' started by Orleander, Mar 8, 2009.

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  1. Orleander OH JOY!!!! Valued Senior Member

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    Are humans the only animal that cry tears when sad?
     
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  3. Baron Max Registered Senior Member

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    Nope, many of the animals shed tears during moments of sadness or grief.

    Lots of people are going to tell you otherwise, but it's usually only those people who have some high, irrational regard for humans. But, Orleander, remember this ....humans are just animals. Please don't attach too much to human behavior and try to pretend that we're better, etc. than other animals.

    Baron Max
     
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  5. Anti-Flag Pun intended Registered Senior Member

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    Let me just get hold of my cat and I'll get back to you on this subject.
     
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  7. EndLightEnd This too shall pass. Registered Senior Member

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    We have to stress the difference between producing tears, and crying. Of course all animals possess tear ducts, they are necessary for healthy functioning eyes. Humans however are the only animals which produce tears in response to various emotions.
     
  8. Orleander OH JOY!!!! Valued Senior Member

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    Thanks ELE
    I'm kinda surprised apes don't cry when sad. I wonder why its just us and why we evolved it.
     
  9. Steve100 O͓͍̯̬̯̙͈̟̥̳̩͒̆̿ͬ̑̀̓̿͋ͬ ̙̳ͅ ̫̪̳͔O Valued Senior Member

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    My girlfriend's dog cries.
     
  10. Enmos Valued Senior Member

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    Every species has behavior unique to it. I don't see what good focusing on some arbitrary property of humans would do.
     
  11. Baron Max Registered Senior Member

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    Can you prove that? And, please, that doesn't mean posting someone else's opinions ....however "qualified" they might claim to be.

    Baron Max
     
  12. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    The Wikipedia article on crying says that we are, and provides citations. However, it recognizes that there is not unanimous agreement on this question and provides one citation that takes the opposing view.

    Unlike Max, who claims this is untrue and warns you not to accept a hypothesis unsupported by evidence, yet fails to support his own. (Merely an absentminded omission, I'm sure.

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    The article notes that tears that express sadness differ in their chemical composition from the tears ordinarily secreted for lubrication and cleansing, containing higher concentrations of potassium and manganese as well as three hormones. One would suppose that the tears secreted by other animals under various conditions could be tested for this difference to determine whether any of them appear to correlate with sadness.

    It also states that on the average women cry five times per month, five times as often as men, although it admits that this may be due to repression by the strong tabu in many Western cultures. On the other hand the extra four cries correlate very strongly with the menstrual cycle.

    It seems that one of the primary functions of crying is communication. Therefore it's unlikely that non-social species would have evolved the behavior.
    I'm sure that was just an error in writing style and you meant to say "the other apes." Anyone who doubts that Homo sapiens is a species of ape has never watched a professional gymnast.

    Human psychology is qualitatively different from all other vertebrates, because of our uniquely massive forebrain. We have a far greater ability than any other vertebrate to override the instinctive behavior of our primitive reptilian brain with reasoned and learned behavior. Therefore--even in the absence of the other evidence which was cited above--it would not be extraordinary to speculate that a behavior which both expresses emotion and communicates with our pack-mates might have evolved only in our species.
     
  13. visceral_instinct Monkey see, monkey denigrate Valued Senior Member

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  14. Baron Max Registered Senior Member

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    I made no claims whatsoever, Fraggle, and you're a prick to make that accusation about me!!

    I asked him to prove his assertions and he hasn't done so. And, I might add, neither have you ...other than to point out the opinions of some others! Opinions don't count, Fraggle, and you should know that ...even the opinions of educated individuals. People like that have been proven wrong in many, many instances ......and you know it.

    Type less bullshit, Fraggle, and get off your fuckin' high horse!!

    Baron Max
     
  15. Dark520 Rebuilt Registered Senior Member

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    I don't see any supporting evidence after your first sentence - am I missing a link somewhere? If I'm not (and I don't believe I am), then you're being awfully hypocritical. You'd think that after (or I guess, technically, before) saying this: "Can you prove that? And, please, that doesn't mean posting someone else's opinions ....however "qualified" they might claim to be," you'd at least support your own assertion.

    As for the actual topic, if crying is indeed a mechanism for releasing stress hormones, then I don't see it being out-of-the-picture to think that other animals might cry as well, because we know that animals can become stressed. But then, I suppose I'm making the assumption that we're talking about crying in all senses other than to flush out unwanted particulates and such. If we're talking about strictly crying because of grief or sadness, then my above assertion may not hold (and probably doesn't).
     
  16. EndLightEnd This too shall pass. Registered Senior Member

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    Well elephants, for example, are well known to show obvious signs of grief and mourning whenever they encounter the skeletal remains of another (possible relative) elephant.
    However as far as I am aware, there has never been any documented sighting of a group of elephants with streaming tears on their faces around skeletal remains. I could be wrong though.
     
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