February 28, 2012 • 39 mins
You probably did it around 70 times last year, yet you probably don't understand the psychological and physiological processes at work when you cried. Don't feel bad - no one does. Join Chuck and Josh as they poke around your tear ducts in this episode.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready. Are you welcome to you Stuff you Should
Know from House Stuff Works dot Com. It's all right,
(00:21):
cry crying, that's sad out all of you. It's all right, hey,
and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles
w Chuck Bryant. How are you doing good, sir? Are
you doing good? Okay? Good? Um, you put the two
of us together and you've got a little podcast called
(00:44):
Stuff you Should Know, And that's what this is. And
you get more than that. Even though, uh, this was
an abnormal start, semi abnormal. We've had Devo kick us
off before. Uh yeah, but hey, Divo has got nothing
on Rosie Greer. No, you want to talk a little
bit about well, yeah, obviously, uh, children of the seventies
(01:05):
might recognize that song. Um might be very fond to
some of you, like it is to Me from the
awesome album Free to Be You and Me, which uh
Marlo Thomas headed up this this record in the seventies
to basically build kids up, make him feel better about
you know, if you're a boy and you're a little effeminine,
(01:26):
you like to play with dolls. So was the one
called William Wants a Doll. If you're a boy and
you know you wanted to cry, Rosie Greer's there to
tell you it's okay. Ye might make you feel better.
And uh there was you know, there was one about
like treating your grandparents with respect, and it's okay for
girls to like do boy things and boys to do
girl things. And you know it's very seventies. It's okay
(01:48):
for girls to punch in the arm. Yeah, pretty hard.
I think there was a song about that. I love
the seventies for that reason. It was great though. Man,
I listened to this one like a lot. Yeah. Mel
Books was on it, and and Bancroft, and I mean
it was a litany of awesome seventies guests. So thank you,
Marlo Thomas, and now thank you to Uncle Chuck for
bringing it back. Josh, before we go any further, what
(02:12):
are you doing? We have a very special announcement that
I'd like you to make right now. You want me
to make it, and we're doing it at the beginning
of the show, because not everyone listens all the way through,
even though they're missing out. Yeah, uh so, yeah, please
announce this is a very high honor. As everyone knows,
We're doing a live podcast at south By Southwest on Sunday,
March eleven, from three thirty four thirty in the Maximilian
(02:34):
Room at the Drisco Hotel. Right that for badge holders,
it's been pretty clear the whole time, I hope. So
we've been kind of dancing around what we're doing at
this special event, this stuff you should know. Variety Show
the next day, which is Monday, March twelve, from five
to nine at Fidoux Irish Pub on Fourth Street in Austin.
(02:55):
Dance no more, sir, No, I hand the dance card
over to you. Chuck do it, uh, dudes and do debts.
We have been lucky enough to get a chance at
television with a TV pilot for Science Channel. The awesome,
awesome people at Science Channel have given us a chance
for a half hour TV pilot. We made it. It's
(03:18):
in the can. Yeah, like we'd gone over where in
the second round of editing. We're just all together. It's happening.
This pilot is coming together. It is coming together, and uh.
That will be the basis of the Variety Show, featuring
an appearance by Mr John Hodgman. How could we not
include Hodgy? He's always there. Eugene Merman, who I'm looking
(03:39):
forward to meeting, very funny comedian big Man. His music
by Lucy waynewright Roach, who is in the pilot to
play Jerry Crazy and Jerry will be there too, and
we're gonna put him right next to one another. Remember
it's been the plan all along, our buddies Henry Clay,
people who have been friends for a few years now.
(04:00):
It's crazy and who you manage on the side, manage
and the side sometimes. Uh, they did the score, Joey
when the band did the score and the theme song,
did a lot of composing, did some good stuff. Yeah,
and they will be playing this this party and local
Austin band Crooks, who it turns out are also fans
of the show. And that just happened. Yeah, I like
(04:21):
it when serendip happens to So Crooks are gonna be
playing as well. And they're they're awesome, sort of old
school country with a little new school rock thrown in.
And uh, we will be showing clips from the show
throughout the night, which we think, I mean, we've seen
this show how many times? Chuck and I still like it.
I feel like this is a pretty neat pilot. So
(04:43):
if you want to be in the know and get
a sneak peek this thing and whatever I said on
Facebook today, whatever you think this show was like, you're wrong.
Oh wow, you've been You've been taunting people. I just
I don't think anyone is gonna expect what we're gonna
give him. Okay, well it's gonna air at some point
right to yeah, the spring, but this is the debut,
the premiere of the sneak peak clips of the Stuff
(05:07):
You Should Know TV pilot. That's right, Monday, March twelve
from five to nine Fidoe Irish Pub to fourteen West
fourth Street, Austin, Texas. Free drink ticket to the first
one guests. Yes, I mean that's really You don't have
to like leg wrestle to find out who uses it.
So wow, yeah that is that is reason up the coach.
And this is not for badge holders, Nope, this is
(05:30):
for the public at large and it's anybody can come free.
It's totally totals free. Well we're not buying drinks or anything,
but it's it's still like there's no admission. Uh, no
admission whatsoever. I don't even think there's an age requirement.
I believe they serve food. It's like just a restaurant
as well, so you don't have to get all drinking.
You can just come and sip on some iced tea. Excellent.
(05:51):
So is that it? Can we get back to the
show now? All right? Back to the show we recorded
several weeks back. Okay, Wow, the focus obviously on this
one is crying. If you notice the title, that shouldn't
come as much of a surprise. UM, I have a
little story for you. Um have you heard of the
movie Water for Elephants? Uh? Yeah, it's like Reese Witherspoon
(06:15):
and the dude from Twilight. Yeah. Emily saw that. Is
it any good? She enjoyed it? Well. I was researching
whether or not elephants can cry, and apparently at one
of the premiers, I think the premiere in Australia for
this movie, the elephant costar was there and it started
crying really and apparently everybody was really affected by this
(06:36):
elephant just crying in you know, the middle of public.
Didn't think the Australians, We're going to eat them. I
don't know what the elephant was thinking, And we're not
even certain whether the elephant was crying, because as far
as we can tell, humans are the only species that
cry emotionally as the result of an emotion. Yes, but
it is possible that elephants and guerrillas are the two
(06:59):
like as candidates as it stands now do as well.
But we're so far from understanding whether elephants do that.
We don't even know how often humans cry, let alone
whether elephants can cry for an emotion. Yeah, there's been
a lot more studies done on laughter and its benefits
than crying. I found out. Yeah, I've noticed, Chuck, we've
(07:21):
been doing this what for coming up on twenty years,
four years, we're coming up onto our fourth year eventually
this year. UM And I found like, when we encounter
stuff like this fields topics that haven't fully been sussed out,
there's two ways it can go. It's either loaded with
total bs hypotheses that like maybe makes sense in a
(07:44):
really eight year old common sense way UM or are
just filled with awesome like um ideas of just basically
our demonstrations of how great humanity can use its mind. Right,
this is the former, and I'm sorry for tapping on
the table. I know that that's a new habit of mine,
and then it screws things up, but it's it's for emphasis. Yeah. Uh.
(08:07):
As far as the gorilla thing, I can direct people
if you want to cry to the video of Cocoa
the gorilla sign language gorilla. Yeah. She uh. She had
a pet kitten at one point, and it's very cute
and you see this kitten and Cocoa bonding and it's
those videos are the best. Anyway, she accidentally breaks its
has to shoot her in the back of the head. No, no,
(08:27):
Gary Sinise. Actually I think it was a chokehold. Um.
But the cat of course gets out and gets hit
by a car and killed. And they have on tape
the the woman going and telling Cocoa that the kitten
is dead, and Coco I might start crying right now.
Coco starts making the signs for bad and sad and
(08:48):
frown and then cry and like, dude, you gotta see it.
I mean, I'm a weepy guy anyway, but I was
at my desk earlier just like fighting it back. But
then I really encourage you to go look at the video.
Right after that, Cocoa gets a new kitten. Oh yeah,
that'll just make you feel better all over again. Okay,
I'm glad. Is it in like the replace screen? It's
(09:09):
one of the ones that pops up. Is the next thing.
It actually has a pop up while you're watching this,
like click on here to see Cocoa get a new kitten.
But yeah, I mean it looks like Cocoa is very
much emotional. Whether or not Coco is actually crying, and
whether or not animals get emotional is under debate, and
that's a whole other topic in itself. Um, but I
(09:30):
guess the point is is we're we're only kind of
beginning to get a loose grasp on why we cry
and how we cry, and so the research is kind
of um uh insufficient, I guess. But we're just gonna
go through some of the ideas of what's behind crying.
We have something of a good grasp on the physiology
of it. Yeah. And this whole thing, this guy that
(09:52):
that surmised about our ancestors, Yeah, this one that was
so weak. This is BS hypothesis number one. Do you
want to take? Yeah. Dr Paul D. McClean theorized that
our you know, cave ancestors would um, cremate the deceased
become overcome by emotions, and then the smoke would get
in their eyes, which would trigger reflex tears, which we'll
(10:13):
talk about. And um, then all of a sudden they
were just linked forever and crying or death and mourning
and crying, which and that was the birth of emotional tears.
I don't buy that one, any of I don't either,
but it does lead us pretty uh pretty uh segway
into what emotional tears are. Right there. One of three
(10:35):
types of tears that we've sussed out, um, the first
being basil tears, which with or without cocoa you've got
right now. We cry every day. Tend it what five
to announces? Yeah, that's a lot. Yeah, and you were
you aware of that? Well, I didn't know it was
that much. It's almost a bottle of beer. Yeah, it's
a good point. Yeah, that makes me want to cry.
(10:58):
I don't know why. Um yeah, I mean obviously your
eyes would dry out, So that's just your body's uh
taking care of itself by by working up these tears.
And most of that, UM, well, I guess just about
all of the five to ten ounces of basal tears, uh,
that you produce every day. Drain through your sinuses, your
scinus cavity instead of streaming down your cheeks, which you
(11:20):
might get stopped up. They sit and here a running
nose when you cry. But I get stopped up personally,
do you, yeah, like stops up my sinuses, um, my
nose ruins generally? Really? Yeah? Um? Well, what are tears?
I don't think we even said that. Oh, tears are
liquid e secretions of fats, proteins, mucus oil, but for
(11:42):
the most part water um. And depending on the type
of tears, this is very significant. Though, depending on the
type of tears, the composition is going to be different.
So if you look at, um, say, reflex tears, which
are designed to um rid your eye of some sort
of irritant, right smoke? Onions? Onions? Do you want to
(12:04):
tell everybody how onions work? Yeah? I feel like it's
time that we finally explained that one not step off
the list. Uh. There's an enzyme called lachrymatory factor synthas
and that is released when you cut into the onion,
and then that converts amino acids to sol phenic acid,
(12:24):
and then that sulfenic acid turns into uh, sin roepan,
the theol s oxide, and that is what irritates your
lacrymal glands to cry when you cut an onion. Right,
and mine, really, I think I mentioned this before. Mine
really go hey, whire burns. It's it's pretty bad. So
I got Emily got me those little goggles everywhere. Can
(12:46):
you post a picture of you cutting onions wearing goggles?
I can't. Actually, I'd like we'll not cutting onions. But
I tried them on on Christmas Day when she got them,
same effect. But I'm saying the next time that you
cut onions wearing these goggles, I'd like to see that.
Um So, yeah, you you also mentioned another important point,
the lacrimal gland. It's in the upper outer region of
(13:07):
your eye, and this is where tears are produced. That
um so, you've got basil tears, you've got reflex tears,
and then you have the emotional tears. The great grand
mystery of humanity and why we cry? Right right? Um
so with with emotional tears. Uh. From what we can
it is a great picture of you wearing goggle. That's
(13:28):
really great. They work too. Um you look like wow,
that's a great I gotta stop right there. Um. But
so with emotional tears, what we suspect is going on
is that the cerebrum, which registers sadness, um says, hey eyes,
uh you know, says hey, endocrine system, you're feeling a
(13:49):
little blue. Why don't you go activate the lacrymal glands
and let's get the crying commenced, release the hormones. Yeah, um,
and uh, I don't think it's any coincidence that you
that you expressed tears at the same time you're expressing emotion, right,
I would agree with that. And that's what you were
(14:09):
kind of talking about earlier, the whole theory of whether
or not having a good cry it makes you feel better.
And you mentioned earlier that the composition of the tears
dippers and they collected let's just call them onion tears
for lack of a better well, we have reflex hears.
They collected onion tears, and they collected sad movie tears.
(14:31):
And uh, I found that the reflex onion tears were
what like ninety eight percent water, whereas the other ones
were chuck full of sad proteins like prolactin, which is
very much involved in the process of um producing breast milk,
hence the name. It's for lactating pro lactin. What else
are you gonna say that other one? Yes, I am chuck.
(14:53):
It's UH. Adreno corta co tropic hormones. Adrenal corte tropic
hormones to UM indicate high levels of stress. So that
makes sense, which is a commonly experienced thing while you're crying.
And then there's lucine and fallen episodes have just turned
(15:14):
into like this parade of me humiliating myself. Now you
did well. Lucine and cafollen, which is an endorphment that
reduces pain and improves moon. Yeah, so that it makes
sense that you would find these in tears when you
might not in emotional tears instead of reflex tears. The
problem is is that not all UM studies who have
(15:35):
looked into this, that have looked into this have found
that crying does make you feel better. There's been plenty
of studies that have found the opposite. Most studies, I
shouldn't say most, but some studies have found UH that
there's no change whatsoever. People don't feel any better or worse.
And one study that required UM I think like like
(15:56):
twelve hundred. No, there were like twelve hundred account of
crying over like seventy days among like x number of
UM female college students. UM it found that that crying
was preceded by two days of low mood and proceeded
by two days of low mood. So on either side
of a crying incident, there was two bad days before
(16:18):
and after, so there wasn't necessarily an improved mood. Well,
and one of the studies that you have sent me
earlier kind of gave some reason behind this, which makes
sense to me. UM. One reason might be because laboratory
crying you may not be getting consolation, which might be
what makes you feel better when someone sees you crying
they came over to patch on the back and you know,
(16:39):
buck up, camper. And the other was that it's not
a realistic study. Oh well, the the helplessness factor, which
made a lot of sense to me, Like you're watching
the Sarah McLaughlin uh animals dying thing and a good
cry when that doesn't make you feeling better because animals
are still dying. So there's this helplessness like when you're
watching the sad movie that like I can't these characters.
(17:01):
So a good cry, is it gonna make me feel
any better? No, but it may in a real world
setting where you're crying and it's cathartic and somebody's making
you feel better and then also explaining to you how
things actually are better, and you're like right. So it's
kind of a tough nut to crack because when you
study something like this, they sit you down in a
lab and make you watch Brian's Song and you know,
(17:21):
I've never seen it. It's a little clinical. Brian's song
is Brian looks very sad? Isn't that John Voight? Now
it was Jimmy Cohn And uh, I can't remember who
played Gayl Sayers, but um, yeah, it was the famous
story of the football player dying of cancer, Gayl Sayers
(17:41):
teammate very sad, you know, speaking of sad and dying. Um,
there's a whole I wish I would have looked it
up ahead of time. I read an article about people
who love these books but you know, like Sweet Valley High.
Imagine if each book was about a different Sweet Valley
High girl and they were all dying young, but they
were like the brave, like captain of the cheerleading squads,
(18:04):
a student class president, don't ever feel bad for me
kind of gals. But they always died at the end.
And there's like this series of like fifty books of
like young adult fiction that's by this one author and
it's all like dying young. I wonder if the purpose
of those was too, you know, prepare kids for losing
friends young, because that does happen ladies, where they're dying
(18:27):
all over the place. Was it a female author? You know, yes,
I'm interesting. I don't remember that. I'm sure somebody will, right,
and please do um So Japan you want to mention that. Yeah,
I even look this up to verify because it sounds
a little wacky. But you know, the Japanese, they're always
setting the standard for things like this. They have crying
clubs over there where they do believe that it makes
(18:48):
you feel better, so they'll get together as a group
and watch these sad movies or having read these books
and talk about them just to have a group cry.
But you also, you just hit something on the head.
And importently is that they believe that crying makes you
feel better. Apparently it's culturally bound. So yeah, if you're
in a if you live in a society that doesn't
(19:08):
think crying makes you feel better. Maybe you're kind of
a whisp for crying. You're less likely to report feeling
better after crying than somebody who lives in a society
like Japan where it's supported, yes, that makes sense, or
where people think that crying does make you feel better.
It's like zombies and I cry a lot. I'm a
very weepy guy. I know you are, and I think
it said one reason, Uh, we'll go ahead and give
(19:30):
away a secret. One reason they think men might cry
less because they sweat more. And if crying is a
way to release some of these build up of toxins,
then sweat would do that. But I sweat bs hypothesis,
I could cry. I've got an overactive bladder. I know.
I've seen you cry, sweat, and pe all at the
same time. Dude, I'm just constantly leaking fluids. I know
(19:52):
it doesn't help, believe me, because there's always some kind
of fluid right behind it, and there's always another Coco
video coming up. I've I'm very eye rolly as a result.
Oh yeah, thank you for that. Um So what else
we have? Well, let's talk about babies. When we start crying,
obviously is when we're a little uh crying newborns, which
(20:14):
makes sense. I mean, you cry, you need help, you
want to be changed, You're totally you're you're helpless, useless,
there's nothing you can do, so you cry. I'm hungry
at everybody. Now, I'm sleepy, sleepy. I was looking into this,
chuck like that still doesn't quite make sense. Why babies cry.
I mean, we take it for for you know, granted,
it's just babies cry, it's what they do. But when
(20:36):
did the first human baby cry? And why did the
first human baby cry? And I looked into it and
there was actually this cool study that put up a
few hypotheses that aren't necessarily be us. They're the very least,
very interesting of why humans started to cry. And it's
like based on natural selection, like the first few babies
that cried were selected one because it reduces infanicide, okay,
(21:00):
which is apparently very common in early early cultures. It
reduces yes, and here's why. It emotionally manipulates the parent
into not just abandoning the baby or leaving the baby
melicicits sympathy, yes, but it also um basically says, Hey,
I'm a very healthy, fit baby. You don't want to
leave me behind. I'm gonna be great at picking berries
(21:20):
when yes, exactly. Now, if if I were the type
of baby just abandoned and leave for dead, I may
just not even be able to get a good cry going.
So it makes sense a little whimpering cry might not
be as strong, exactly. So it was that led to
natural selection of crying in babies, and that's why we
cry today. At least, that's that makes sense. That's one
(21:40):
of the better hypotheses I've run across. I was just
thinking my own hypothesis might be that, you know, back then,
it's not like the mother was always right over the
baby like they are today. No, that's not you. The
opposite is true. Oh really, there were more present. They
carried him everywhere. Well, then there goes my hypothesis. It's okay,
we I thought they had just part of science. Okay, no, no,
(22:04):
I know what you're saying. And actually that kind of
coincides with the reason why you would cry, because a
baby that cries is being abandoned and knows it. Right
when you're away from the mother for a very long time.
That means Mom's gone. She's like twenty clicks that way
and not coming back right. That's very sad. Reduces infanticide.
(22:25):
So babies cry differently as they grow, to communicate different
things in a in a in tune. Parent will tell
you that, like from the other room of that cry
probably means she needs to be changed. That cry means
he's hungry or has fallen out of his crib and
he's playing with power tools maybe you know. Uh, and
(22:46):
then uh at ten months they think that's when babies
start to cry to manipulate their parents for attention. And this,
by the way, I thought it was a very sexist article.
Did you notice some of the lines, oh, man, like, yeah,
and that's when your mascara runs. If the guy had
written this, could you imagine the backlash? No, I totally can.
I picked up on that as well. I know what
(23:07):
you're about to say. I couldn't even bring myself to
underline and I just ignored it completely. Well, I highlighted
it in green because I wanted to read it. Here's
what the line is. Some studies have reported that women
in particular continue this manipulative crying throughout their life in
order to manipulate others into giving them what they want,
for example, forgiveness, pity, or a diamond bracelet. I mean,
(23:30):
I don't know. It is very I'm even offended. I
was too. I read that to Emily. She's like, are
you kidding me? The author is in trouble. Maybe she is. Um.
So you've got manipulative crying at about the age of
ten months, right, But there is manipulative crying as adults.
I'm not trying to say there's not, because there definitely is.
(23:51):
I think done it as a man. No, for what,
what did you want when you're young and emotional and
that your girlfriend breaks up with you and you just
want you just want her back, man, you just want
her back and maybe if you seem sad enough, she'll
feel sorry for you and take you back. So you
weren't sad, uh, yeah, if you weren't sad enough to
(24:11):
cry naturally, But I'm still working at the crocodile tears
just to uh. Crocodiles only try to excrete excess salt water. Well,
that's why they call them crocodile tiers, because there's nothing
a motive behind it, all right, moving on to adolescence, Well,
not quite yet. The adolescence. Uh, we should say that
up to adolescents. From the time that we're infants to adolescence,
(24:34):
boys and girls supposedly cry at about the same frequency
and amount, at least same frequency. There's not a lot
of um change or difference between the gender. But when
we do hit adolescents, and this one makes a lot
of sense, um voice, testosterone shoots up, and there's a
negative correlation with crying. It decreases. They can just get
(24:54):
angry with girls. They're crying actually increases. And there's a
positive correlation with estrogen production. Um, which that sounds kind
of sexist, but it's true physiologically speaking, it's true, right, Um.
And in conjunction with estrogen production, you've also got prolactin, which,
(25:14):
don't forget, is found in emotional tears. And a crying
researcher named is it William Fry William Fry and Muriel
trying the Mystery of tears? Okay, he Fry, I believe
actually in Alzheimer's researcher and he just did like crying
as a as an amusement. Yeah, he's one of those, um.
(25:40):
But he uh, he suggests that girls have about six
more prolactin in their bodies at any given time than men.
Um and as a result, they tend to cry more
and more frequently. Um four times as much as what
he says, Yeah, which is a lot. But again, no
one's really done a great, big, huge survey on how
(26:01):
often people cry. Yeah, this one, I don't know how
large it was, but it was a study, um the
head people record how many times they cried over the
period of one year. This one found women cried roughly
sixty four times compared to seventeen and men and everyone
underestimated men and women how much they would have cried.
(26:21):
But um, that seems low to me, or maybe I'm
just speaking personally as a weepy guy, you know, it's
like seventeen. I was like, I think sixty four is low.
Oh yeah, I mean I'll cry. And and something I
didn't see in here was crying over some over beauty.
That happens to me a lot too, or something that's
just so beautiful at a concert or a sunrise or something.
(26:45):
We look at that guy's light. Yeah, it's the most
beautiful thing I've ever seen. It is what do you
mean it a concert? Well, like the music or something like.
I saw the the Oh De Joy at Carnegie Hall
one time. When that kicked in, I was so like
overwrought I started crying. I um, I just I thought
Bonnie Prince Billy concert. Not No, I would cry at
a Bonny Prince Billy concert with the music moved me enough.
(27:09):
Um I I want to say, on behalf of everybody,
thank you for sharing so much of yourself in this one.
It's making the whole thing way better. I don't mind.
I mean, who cares, No, it certainly doesn't. Rosie Greer says, so. Um.
So let's see men also here we arrive at BS
hypothesis three. Okay, men cry less chuck because they supposedly
(27:34):
have smaller tear ducks or lacrymal glance. Cry fewer tears,
no less volume volume because women have larger Okay, well
you think that's BS totally Yeah, yeah, well maybe women
are equipped with larger ones because they cry more. You
(27:56):
think maybe most of the hyper season research I'm crying.
It's done in the back of cocktail napkins for some reason.
According to Women's Health Magazine, though Josh, men typically only
cry when they suffer a major loss and I find
this to be true for a lot of guys. Is
usually it's anger and frustration. Uh, or anger is how
(28:21):
they express frustration and stress, whereas a woman might be
more prone to cry if they're frustrated or stressed. Yeah,
that's probably been true for me, and I'm a weepy guy.
I think though, that it's a difference in threshold. Sure,
possibly because I think frustration and anger can lead to
tears pretty pretty frequently when you reach that point. Yeah,
(28:45):
I think it's it's just a difference in threshold. There's
a lower threshold perhaps in women, maybe not. I don't
know what I'm saying, like that would be my take
on that. Or maybe men maybe the the stereotypical his
street of men not being allowed to cry, or it's
just a sign of weakness. Maybe that leads to even
more frustration, so it's expressed his anger. Which is funny
(29:08):
because there is a study that's mentioned in this article that, um,
they did a survey of people saying, you know, uh,
does men crying bother you? And do you think it
bothers other people? And most people were like, it doesn't
really bother me, but yeah, I'm sure it bothers everybody else,
and like virtually everybody responded that way. So in other words,
people don't mind, they're just not talking about it. Well,
(29:29):
it's just like this this social ideal or societal ideal
that men shouldn't cry, and other people are bothered by it,
even though no one's really bothered by it. Thanks to
Rosie Greer, it's called the Greer effect. He was a
football player too. I don't know if I mentioned that.
Cool dude. He was also in uh, The Thing with
Two Heads, The Thing with Two Heads, The Man with
(29:52):
two Brains. He and oh man, it wasn't like I
don't think it was. It may have been William Holden.
It was a a rich um scientist who had his
head attached to a convict name played by Rosy Greer's body,
(30:12):
and they were like this odd couple. It was like
a creature feature Saturday shocker type. Never heard of the
seventies The Thing with Two Heads is think is what
it's called. Great movie. Trying to get that immediately that
in The Incredible Melting Man. I never heard of that one.
That was a good one. Was that because of a
at the ice age. I remember, that was my hypothesis.
(30:36):
You have a good memory. All right, Well there's our
tangent for this episode. Um. Getting back to men crying, though,
they have done some research and some people think that
a note noted man crying in public is actually good
for your career and good for your pr like John Bayner. Sure,
Tim Tebow. Now, do you remember when I think Florida
(31:00):
lost the Tennessee and Tebow cried? It was there was
some guy who's like, oh, Tebow, your tears taste so sweet.
It was beautiful to see. Yeah, I don't. I don't
dislike him as much now though, because of uh, I'm
not like some big fan. But I found that once
a player leaves or coach leaves the University of Florida,
(31:22):
like I love Coach Spurrier, you're you disgusted me for
even saying that. Now, once they leave Florida, I don't
have that time to keep that to yourself. I've found
that that's not the case with me. Like I hate Spurrier, still,
I can't stand Tebow Urban Meyer like everybody, I can't
stand anybody who has Florida stank on him. Rex Grossman,
(31:44):
I don't care who you're talking about that. I I
can't stand any of them. Well, you know, I like
that kind of consistency. I just got so angry accidentally
licked the mic cover. That's grass. Um. What else have
we got here? Oh? Well, why why we cry? Um?
There's again the fields wide open for any quack to
(32:05):
come up with an idea and get it published in
an article on how stuff works keeps us healthier? Yeah,
by removing toxins stress related hormones. But but your pooh, pooh,
But do you remember when we did how saunas work,
and we're talking about how, yes, you have um kidneys
and you're bladder and your euretha euretha. To get rid
of all these toxins, you don't really need to sweat,
(32:26):
but sweating does get rid of some of it, and
every little bit helps conceivably, Well, these stress related hormones
do exit your body through your tears. And I think
it's beyond just the toxins. I think that I believe
that holding onto the these negative emotions is not good
ultimately for for your heart and your body. I think,
(32:49):
you know, I think a good cry could help. I've
seen it, and you've experienced. I've experienced, you've seen it.
Don't back off now, yeah, you're right. Um, people from
colitis and ulcers tend to have a poor view of crying. Uh,
then people who don't have that, which apparently suggests that
if you don't cry, you're gonna end up with ulcers
(33:11):
in colitis. I don't know about that one, that's true.
You gave me something interesting on depression. Uh. They studied
forty four people with mood disorders. I guess the forty
person just they couldn't show up, you know. Uh, And
they said that they were in fact more prone to
crying than than people who they were comparing them to
(33:32):
who didn't have the mood disorder. But if you had
severe depression, a lot of times you had an inability
to cry altogether, which is really sad to me. Yes,
that's very sad. I guess it's just that dead inside
feeling that's awful. Um. There's also symptoms of crying excessively
(33:53):
apparently some people with PTSD, right. Uh. One of the
symptoms is excessive crying postpartum. Yeah, postponton depression, which I
didn't know this. Nine of women suffered from postpartum depression
following birth. What do you think it was? Lower? Yeah? Really,
I didn't realize it was that prevalent. Yeah, I did,
and I guess it would have to follow birth to
be postpartum depression. That was redundant. Uh. In this interesting
(34:16):
study in Israel, they had men sniff sailing solution compared
to real human tears, and that they found that when
they smelled the real tears or testosterone dipped and brain
scan showed less activity in areas associated with sexual arousal.
So that made good sense to me because if someone
(34:39):
if someone's really upset and crying, it's not sexually stimulating
to to you, unless unless you're you're real sick person.
So I would say it it's its sympathy and lowers
your sexy time feelings, which which kind of um gives
it a which kind of supports the idea that like
a social bonding theory of crying. Yeah, you know, you're
(35:00):
signaling to somebody else that you're not aggressive, you're you're
you're submitting, you're you're allowing yourself to be vulnerable. So
he just lay off of you, hold me, don't hit me. Yeah,
put the rock down. Did you ever see the doctor
cats about the man hugs. I've seen all of them,
but I don't remember that. There was one bit where
he was talking about the man hugs. When the man
hug and they slap. He was like, men have to
(35:21):
do that because I'm holding you, but i'm hitting you. Right, yeah, yeah,
I do remember that, right, doctor kats so good? You
got anything else? Um? And you know I'll post that
photo of me with the goggles always forget, but someone
Cooper will remind me. Then he'll turn it into something
sick and twisted. Right, Well, I was crying. We did
(35:44):
pretty good with that one. Did a little poop pooing,
did a lot of explaining, you did a lot of sharing.
No crying, No, there's no crying in podcasting. Uh. There
is crying on how Stuff Works dot com. You want
to go to your favorite search engine and you want
to type in how crying works into the search bar,
and that will bring up the how crying works article
(36:07):
on our sister site TLC dot com. It was definitely
TLC Uh if you want to do that, if you
want to learn more about crying, um, and if you
can't remember what we said about the onion and why
it makes you cry, and you want to impress your friends,
just it's in that article you'll be very happy to
see it. Um that is on your favorite search engine,
(36:28):
but it's on house stuff Works. I think I said
search bar and there's somewhere, which means it's time for
a listener mail. I'm gonna call this from Lori in Germany.
Like Germany, guys, Uh, you recently saved my butt and
I thought it would write in to tell you about it.
I'm an Atlanta girl. Originally, he was currently teaching English
(36:50):
at a kindergarten in Germany. Don't I mean garden of children?
I think so. Uh. In the last week before Christmas,
I showed my kids a Muppet Christmas Carol, one of
the best Christmas movies ever. If he asked me, and
as I'm sure you know, there was. There are several
ghosts in the story, but since it's a kids movie,
I assumed it would not be too scary for my
wee laws. Well. I showed the first half on Monday,
(37:14):
and then I was out sick for a couple of days.
When I came back on Thursday, I learned that one
of my little girls, six year old Anka, had barely
slept since she had seen the movie. Apparently the ghosts
were too scary for her, and her mother was apparently
stink sala, which is an excellent German word meaning stinking angry,
so she was stink salau. In an effort to run
(37:35):
damage control, I showed Anka and a couple of other
kids the pictures from the Muppets article on how stuff
works dot com the diagrams uh and this this was
a really great article as far as that stuff goes.
The visuals the diagrams showing how the muppeteers control the
various types of muppets were a really interesting to both
me and the kids and be a miracle cure for
(37:58):
Anica's spears. That cool little behind the scenes tour help
meet my wiwas It's a little disconcerting, isn't it. No,
you help my weas appreciate the cool design of the
ghosts instead of being afraid of them, and Anica's mom
was no longer stink salaz hazah to that. Thank you
for helping me teach my wiwas something new, and for
(38:21):
helping me get out of hot water as well. That
was the first time I've looked up an article after
listening to one of your episodes, But I'm really glad
I did it and thank you for what y'all do
and for the upbeat and open minded attitudes in which
you do it. Uh ydd site dahmma figured of translation,
y'all are awesome literal y'all or the hammer here them
(38:42):
That is Lori in Germany, he was definitely no stink
sala Yeah, I love you German. It's great stuff fun Um,
thanks a lot for that. Lori and Germany were glad
we could help you out. And uh, I urge everybody
and anybody you go check out our beloved site, how
stuff works dot com in mothership connection, how stuff works
(39:06):
dot com right indeed, um, if you want to let
us know how our podcast has gotten you out of
hot water, how how Stuff Works has gotten you out
of hot water. If you want to go on site
and find an article and say, hey, podcast on this,
We're happy to get links like that. You can tweet
to us at s y s K podcast. You can
go on Facebook at Facebook dot com slash stuff you
Should Know, and you can send us a plan on
(39:28):
fashion email to stuff Podcast at Discovery dot com. Be
sure to check out our new video podcast, Stuff from
the Future. Join how Stuff Work staff as we explore
the most promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow brought to
(39:51):
you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready,
are you
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready. Are you welcome to you Stuff you Should
Know from House Stuff Works dot Com. It's all right,
(00:21):
cry crying, that's sad out all of you. It's all right, hey,
and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles
w Chuck Bryant. How are you doing good, sir? Are
you doing good? Okay? Good? Um, you put the two
of us together and you've got a little podcast called
(00:44):
Stuff you Should Know, And that's what this is. And
you get more than that. Even though, uh, this was
an abnormal start, semi abnormal. We've had Devo kick us
off before. Uh yeah, but hey, Divo has got nothing
on Rosie Greer. No, you want to talk a little
bit about well, yeah, obviously, uh, children of the seventies
(01:05):
might recognize that song. Um might be very fond to
some of you, like it is to Me from the
awesome album Free to Be You and Me, which uh
Marlo Thomas headed up this this record in the seventies
to basically build kids up, make him feel better about
you know, if you're a boy and you're a little effeminine,
(01:26):
you like to play with dolls. So was the one
called William Wants a Doll. If you're a boy and
you know you wanted to cry, Rosie Greer's there to
tell you it's okay. Ye might make you feel better.
And uh there was you know, there was one about
like treating your grandparents with respect, and it's okay for
girls to like do boy things and boys to do
girl things. And you know it's very seventies. It's okay
(01:48):
for girls to punch in the arm. Yeah, pretty hard.
I think there was a song about that. I love
the seventies for that reason. It was great though. Man,
I listened to this one like a lot. Yeah. Mel
Books was on it, and and Bancroft, and I mean
it was a litany of awesome seventies guests. So thank you,
Marlo Thomas, and now thank you to Uncle Chuck for
bringing it back. Josh, before we go any further, what
(02:12):
are you doing? We have a very special announcement that
I'd like you to make right now. You want me
to make it, and we're doing it at the beginning
of the show, because not everyone listens all the way through,
even though they're missing out. Yeah, uh so, yeah, please
announce this is a very high honor. As everyone knows,
We're doing a live podcast at south By Southwest on Sunday,
March eleven, from three thirty four thirty in the Maximilian
(02:34):
Room at the Drisco Hotel. Right that for badge holders,
it's been pretty clear the whole time, I hope. So
we've been kind of dancing around what we're doing at
this special event, this stuff you should know. Variety Show
the next day, which is Monday, March twelve, from five
to nine at Fidoux Irish Pub on Fourth Street in Austin.
(02:55):
Dance no more, sir, No, I hand the dance card
over to you. Chuck do it, uh, dudes and do debts.
We have been lucky enough to get a chance at
television with a TV pilot for Science Channel. The awesome,
awesome people at Science Channel have given us a chance
for a half hour TV pilot. We made it. It's
(03:18):
in the can. Yeah, like we'd gone over where in
the second round of editing. We're just all together. It's happening.
This pilot is coming together. It is coming together, and uh.
That will be the basis of the Variety Show, featuring
an appearance by Mr John Hodgman. How could we not
include Hodgy? He's always there. Eugene Merman, who I'm looking
(03:39):
forward to meeting, very funny comedian big Man. His music
by Lucy waynewright Roach, who is in the pilot to
play Jerry Crazy and Jerry will be there too, and
we're gonna put him right next to one another. Remember
it's been the plan all along, our buddies Henry Clay,
people who have been friends for a few years now.
(04:00):
It's crazy and who you manage on the side, manage
and the side sometimes. Uh, they did the score, Joey
when the band did the score and the theme song,
did a lot of composing, did some good stuff. Yeah,
and they will be playing this this party and local
Austin band Crooks, who it turns out are also fans
of the show. And that just happened. Yeah, I like
(04:21):
it when serendip happens to So Crooks are gonna be
playing as well. And they're they're awesome, sort of old
school country with a little new school rock thrown in.
And uh, we will be showing clips from the show
throughout the night, which we think, I mean, we've seen
this show how many times? Chuck and I still like it.
I feel like this is a pretty neat pilot. So
(04:43):
if you want to be in the know and get
a sneak peek this thing and whatever I said on
Facebook today, whatever you think this show was like, you're wrong.
Oh wow, you've been You've been taunting people. I just
I don't think anyone is gonna expect what we're gonna
give him. Okay, well it's gonna air at some point
right to yeah, the spring, but this is the debut,
the premiere of the sneak peak clips of the Stuff
(05:07):
You Should Know TV pilot. That's right, Monday, March twelve
from five to nine Fidoe Irish Pub to fourteen West
fourth Street, Austin, Texas. Free drink ticket to the first
one guests. Yes, I mean that's really You don't have
to like leg wrestle to find out who uses it.
So wow, yeah that is that is reason up the coach.
And this is not for badge holders, Nope, this is
(05:30):
for the public at large and it's anybody can come free.
It's totally totals free. Well we're not buying drinks or anything,
but it's it's still like there's no admission. Uh, no
admission whatsoever. I don't even think there's an age requirement.
I believe they serve food. It's like just a restaurant
as well, so you don't have to get all drinking.
You can just come and sip on some iced tea. Excellent.
(05:51):
So is that it? Can we get back to the
show now? All right? Back to the show we recorded
several weeks back. Okay, Wow, the focus obviously on this
one is crying. If you notice the title, that shouldn't
come as much of a surprise. UM, I have a
little story for you. Um have you heard of the
movie Water for Elephants? Uh? Yeah, it's like Reese Witherspoon
(06:15):
and the dude from Twilight. Yeah. Emily saw that. Is
it any good? She enjoyed it? Well. I was researching
whether or not elephants can cry, and apparently at one
of the premiers, I think the premiere in Australia for
this movie, the elephant costar was there and it started
crying really and apparently everybody was really affected by this
(06:36):
elephant just crying in you know, the middle of public.
Didn't think the Australians, We're going to eat them. I
don't know what the elephant was thinking, And we're not
even certain whether the elephant was crying, because as far
as we can tell, humans are the only species that
cry emotionally as the result of an emotion. Yes, but
it is possible that elephants and guerrillas are the two
(06:59):
like as candidates as it stands now do as well.
But we're so far from understanding whether elephants do that.
We don't even know how often humans cry, let alone
whether elephants can cry for an emotion. Yeah, there's been
a lot more studies done on laughter and its benefits
than crying. I found out. Yeah, I've noticed, Chuck, we've
(07:21):
been doing this what for coming up on twenty years,
four years, we're coming up onto our fourth year eventually
this year. UM And I found like, when we encounter
stuff like this fields topics that haven't fully been sussed out,
there's two ways it can go. It's either loaded with
total bs hypotheses that like maybe makes sense in a
(07:44):
really eight year old common sense way UM or are
just filled with awesome like um ideas of just basically
our demonstrations of how great humanity can use its mind. Right,
this is the former, and I'm sorry for tapping on
the table. I know that that's a new habit of mine,
and then it screws things up, but it's it's for emphasis. Yeah. Uh.
(08:07):
As far as the gorilla thing, I can direct people
if you want to cry to the video of Cocoa
the gorilla sign language gorilla. Yeah. She uh. She had
a pet kitten at one point, and it's very cute
and you see this kitten and Cocoa bonding and it's
those videos are the best. Anyway, she accidentally breaks its
has to shoot her in the back of the head. No, no,
(08:27):
Gary Sinise. Actually I think it was a chokehold. Um.
But the cat of course gets out and gets hit
by a car and killed. And they have on tape
the the woman going and telling Cocoa that the kitten
is dead, and Coco I might start crying right now.
Coco starts making the signs for bad and sad and
(08:48):
frown and then cry and like, dude, you gotta see it.
I mean, I'm a weepy guy anyway, but I was
at my desk earlier just like fighting it back. But
then I really encourage you to go look at the video.
Right after that, Cocoa gets a new kitten. Oh yeah,
that'll just make you feel better all over again. Okay,
I'm glad. Is it in like the replace screen? It's
(09:09):
one of the ones that pops up. Is the next thing.
It actually has a pop up while you're watching this,
like click on here to see Cocoa get a new kitten.
But yeah, I mean it looks like Cocoa is very
much emotional. Whether or not Coco is actually crying, and
whether or not animals get emotional is under debate, and
that's a whole other topic in itself. Um, but I
(09:30):
guess the point is is we're we're only kind of
beginning to get a loose grasp on why we cry
and how we cry, and so the research is kind
of um uh insufficient, I guess. But we're just gonna
go through some of the ideas of what's behind crying.
We have something of a good grasp on the physiology
of it. Yeah. And this whole thing, this guy that
(09:52):
that surmised about our ancestors, Yeah, this one that was
so weak. This is BS hypothesis number one. Do you
want to take? Yeah. Dr Paul D. McClean theorized that
our you know, cave ancestors would um, cremate the deceased
become overcome by emotions, and then the smoke would get
in their eyes, which would trigger reflex tears, which we'll
(10:13):
talk about. And um, then all of a sudden they
were just linked forever and crying or death and mourning
and crying, which and that was the birth of emotional tears.
I don't buy that one, any of I don't either,
but it does lead us pretty uh pretty uh segway
into what emotional tears are. Right there. One of three
(10:35):
types of tears that we've sussed out, um, the first
being basil tears, which with or without cocoa you've got
right now. We cry every day. Tend it what five
to announces? Yeah, that's a lot. Yeah, and you were
you aware of that? Well, I didn't know it was
that much. It's almost a bottle of beer. Yeah, it's
a good point. Yeah, that makes me want to cry.
(10:58):
I don't know why. Um yeah, I mean obviously your
eyes would dry out, So that's just your body's uh
taking care of itself by by working up these tears.
And most of that, UM, well, I guess just about
all of the five to ten ounces of basal tears, uh,
that you produce every day. Drain through your sinuses, your
scinus cavity instead of streaming down your cheeks, which you
(11:20):
might get stopped up. They sit and here a running
nose when you cry. But I get stopped up personally,
do you, yeah, like stops up my sinuses, um, my
nose ruins generally? Really? Yeah? Um? Well, what are tears?
I don't think we even said that. Oh, tears are
liquid e secretions of fats, proteins, mucus oil, but for
(11:42):
the most part water um. And depending on the type
of tears, this is very significant. Though, depending on the
type of tears, the composition is going to be different.
So if you look at, um, say, reflex tears, which
are designed to um rid your eye of some sort
of irritant, right smoke? Onions? Onions? Do you want to
(12:04):
tell everybody how onions work? Yeah? I feel like it's
time that we finally explained that one not step off
the list. Uh. There's an enzyme called lachrymatory factor synthas
and that is released when you cut into the onion,
and then that converts amino acids to sol phenic acid,
(12:24):
and then that sulfenic acid turns into uh, sin roepan,
the theol s oxide, and that is what irritates your
lacrymal glands to cry when you cut an onion. Right,
and mine, really, I think I mentioned this before. Mine
really go hey, whire burns. It's it's pretty bad. So
I got Emily got me those little goggles everywhere. Can
(12:46):
you post a picture of you cutting onions wearing goggles?
I can't. Actually, I'd like we'll not cutting onions. But
I tried them on on Christmas Day when she got them,
same effect. But I'm saying the next time that you
cut onions wearing these goggles, I'd like to see that.
Um So, yeah, you you also mentioned another important point,
the lacrimal gland. It's in the upper outer region of
(13:07):
your eye, and this is where tears are produced. That
um so, you've got basil tears, you've got reflex tears,
and then you have the emotional tears. The great grand
mystery of humanity and why we cry? Right right? Um
so with with emotional tears. Uh. From what we can
it is a great picture of you wearing goggle. That's
(13:28):
really great. They work too. Um you look like wow,
that's a great I gotta stop right there. Um. But
so with emotional tears, what we suspect is going on
is that the cerebrum, which registers sadness, um says, hey eyes,
uh you know, says hey, endocrine system, you're feeling a
(13:49):
little blue. Why don't you go activate the lacrymal glands
and let's get the crying commenced, release the hormones. Yeah, um,
and uh, I don't think it's any coincidence that you
that you expressed tears at the same time you're expressing emotion, right,
I would agree with that. And that's what you were
(14:09):
kind of talking about earlier, the whole theory of whether
or not having a good cry it makes you feel better.
And you mentioned earlier that the composition of the tears
dippers and they collected let's just call them onion tears
for lack of a better well, we have reflex hears.
They collected onion tears, and they collected sad movie tears.
(14:31):
And uh, I found that the reflex onion tears were
what like ninety eight percent water, whereas the other ones
were chuck full of sad proteins like prolactin, which is
very much involved in the process of um producing breast milk,
hence the name. It's for lactating pro lactin. What else
are you gonna say that other one? Yes, I am chuck.
(14:53):
It's UH. Adreno corta co tropic hormones. Adrenal corte tropic
hormones to UM indicate high levels of stress. So that
makes sense, which is a commonly experienced thing while you're crying.
And then there's lucine and fallen episodes have just turned
(15:14):
into like this parade of me humiliating myself. Now you
did well. Lucine and cafollen, which is an endorphment that
reduces pain and improves moon. Yeah, so that it makes
sense that you would find these in tears when you
might not in emotional tears instead of reflex tears. The
problem is is that not all UM studies who have
(15:35):
looked into this, that have looked into this have found
that crying does make you feel better. There's been plenty
of studies that have found the opposite. Most studies, I
shouldn't say most, but some studies have found UH that
there's no change whatsoever. People don't feel any better or worse.
And one study that required UM I think like like
(15:56):
twelve hundred. No, there were like twelve hundred account of
crying over like seventy days among like x number of
UM female college students. UM it found that that crying
was preceded by two days of low mood and proceeded
by two days of low mood. So on either side
of a crying incident, there was two bad days before
(16:18):
and after, so there wasn't necessarily an improved mood. Well,
and one of the studies that you have sent me
earlier kind of gave some reason behind this, which makes
sense to me. UM. One reason might be because laboratory
crying you may not be getting consolation, which might be
what makes you feel better when someone sees you crying
they came over to patch on the back and you know,
(16:39):
buck up, camper. And the other was that it's not
a realistic study. Oh well, the the helplessness factor, which
made a lot of sense to me, Like you're watching
the Sarah McLaughlin uh animals dying thing and a good
cry when that doesn't make you feeling better because animals
are still dying. So there's this helplessness like when you're
watching the sad movie that like I can't these characters.
(17:01):
So a good cry, is it gonna make me feel
any better? No, but it may in a real world
setting where you're crying and it's cathartic and somebody's making
you feel better and then also explaining to you how
things actually are better, and you're like right. So it's
kind of a tough nut to crack because when you
study something like this, they sit you down in a
lab and make you watch Brian's Song and you know,
(17:21):
I've never seen it. It's a little clinical. Brian's song
is Brian looks very sad? Isn't that John Voight? Now
it was Jimmy Cohn And uh, I can't remember who
played Gayl Sayers, but um, yeah, it was the famous
story of the football player dying of cancer, Gayl Sayers
(17:41):
teammate very sad, you know, speaking of sad and dying. Um,
there's a whole I wish I would have looked it
up ahead of time. I read an article about people
who love these books but you know, like Sweet Valley High.
Imagine if each book was about a different Sweet Valley
High girl and they were all dying young, but they
were like the brave, like captain of the cheerleading squads,
(18:04):
a student class president, don't ever feel bad for me
kind of gals. But they always died at the end.
And there's like this series of like fifty books of
like young adult fiction that's by this one author and
it's all like dying young. I wonder if the purpose
of those was too, you know, prepare kids for losing
friends young, because that does happen ladies, where they're dying
(18:27):
all over the place. Was it a female author? You know, yes,
I'm interesting. I don't remember that. I'm sure somebody will, right,
and please do um So Japan you want to mention that. Yeah,
I even look this up to verify because it sounds
a little wacky. But you know, the Japanese, they're always
setting the standard for things like this. They have crying
clubs over there where they do believe that it makes
(18:48):
you feel better, so they'll get together as a group
and watch these sad movies or having read these books
and talk about them just to have a group cry.
But you also, you just hit something on the head.
And importently is that they believe that crying makes you
feel better. Apparently it's culturally bound. So yeah, if you're
in a if you live in a society that doesn't
(19:08):
think crying makes you feel better. Maybe you're kind of
a whisp for crying. You're less likely to report feeling
better after crying than somebody who lives in a society
like Japan where it's supported, yes, that makes sense, or
where people think that crying does make you feel better.
It's like zombies and I cry a lot. I'm a
very weepy guy. I know you are, and I think
it said one reason, Uh, we'll go ahead and give
(19:30):
away a secret. One reason they think men might cry
less because they sweat more. And if crying is a
way to release some of these build up of toxins,
then sweat would do that. But I sweat bs hypothesis,
I could cry. I've got an overactive bladder. I know.
I've seen you cry, sweat, and pe all at the
same time. Dude, I'm just constantly leaking fluids. I know
(19:52):
it doesn't help, believe me, because there's always some kind
of fluid right behind it, and there's always another Coco
video coming up. I've I'm very eye rolly as a result.
Oh yeah, thank you for that. Um So what else
we have? Well, let's talk about babies. When we start crying,
obviously is when we're a little uh crying newborns, which
(20:14):
makes sense. I mean, you cry, you need help, you
want to be changed, You're totally you're you're helpless, useless,
there's nothing you can do, so you cry. I'm hungry
at everybody. Now, I'm sleepy, sleepy. I was looking into this,
chuck like that still doesn't quite make sense. Why babies cry.
I mean, we take it for for you know, granted,
it's just babies cry, it's what they do. But when
(20:36):
did the first human baby cry? And why did the
first human baby cry? And I looked into it and
there was actually this cool study that put up a
few hypotheses that aren't necessarily be us. They're the very least,
very interesting of why humans started to cry. And it's
like based on natural selection, like the first few babies
that cried were selected one because it reduces infanicide, okay,
(21:00):
which is apparently very common in early early cultures. It
reduces yes, and here's why. It emotionally manipulates the parent
into not just abandoning the baby or leaving the baby
melicicits sympathy, yes, but it also um basically says, Hey,
I'm a very healthy, fit baby. You don't want to
leave me behind. I'm gonna be great at picking berries
(21:20):
when yes, exactly. Now, if if I were the type
of baby just abandoned and leave for dead, I may
just not even be able to get a good cry going.
So it makes sense a little whimpering cry might not
be as strong, exactly. So it was that led to
natural selection of crying in babies, and that's why we
cry today. At least, that's that makes sense. That's one
(21:40):
of the better hypotheses I've run across. I was just
thinking my own hypothesis might be that, you know, back then,
it's not like the mother was always right over the
baby like they are today. No, that's not you. The
opposite is true. Oh really, there were more present. They
carried him everywhere. Well, then there goes my hypothesis. It's okay,
we I thought they had just part of science. Okay, no, no,
(22:04):
I know what you're saying. And actually that kind of
coincides with the reason why you would cry, because a
baby that cries is being abandoned and knows it. Right
when you're away from the mother for a very long time.
That means Mom's gone. She's like twenty clicks that way
and not coming back right. That's very sad. Reduces infanticide.
(22:25):
So babies cry differently as they grow, to communicate different
things in a in a in tune. Parent will tell
you that, like from the other room of that cry
probably means she needs to be changed. That cry means
he's hungry or has fallen out of his crib and
he's playing with power tools maybe you know. Uh, and
(22:46):
then uh at ten months they think that's when babies
start to cry to manipulate their parents for attention. And this,
by the way, I thought it was a very sexist article.
Did you notice some of the lines, oh, man, like, yeah,
and that's when your mascara runs. If the guy had
written this, could you imagine the backlash? No, I totally can.
I picked up on that as well. I know what
(23:07):
you're about to say. I couldn't even bring myself to
underline and I just ignored it completely. Well, I highlighted
it in green because I wanted to read it. Here's
what the line is. Some studies have reported that women
in particular continue this manipulative crying throughout their life in
order to manipulate others into giving them what they want,
for example, forgiveness, pity, or a diamond bracelet. I mean,
(23:30):
I don't know. It is very I'm even offended. I
was too. I read that to Emily. She's like, are
you kidding me? The author is in trouble. Maybe she is. Um.
So you've got manipulative crying at about the age of
ten months, right, But there is manipulative crying as adults.
I'm not trying to say there's not, because there definitely is.
(23:51):
I think done it as a man. No, for what,
what did you want when you're young and emotional and
that your girlfriend breaks up with you and you just
want you just want her back, man, you just want
her back and maybe if you seem sad enough, she'll
feel sorry for you and take you back. So you
weren't sad, uh, yeah, if you weren't sad enough to
(24:11):
cry naturally, But I'm still working at the crocodile tears
just to uh. Crocodiles only try to excrete excess salt water. Well,
that's why they call them crocodile tiers, because there's nothing
a motive behind it, all right, moving on to adolescence, Well,
not quite yet. The adolescence. Uh, we should say that
up to adolescents. From the time that we're infants to adolescence,
(24:34):
boys and girls supposedly cry at about the same frequency
and amount, at least same frequency. There's not a lot
of um change or difference between the gender. But when
we do hit adolescents, and this one makes a lot
of sense, um voice, testosterone shoots up, and there's a
negative correlation with crying. It decreases. They can just get
(24:54):
angry with girls. They're crying actually increases. And there's a
positive correlation with estrogen production. Um, which that sounds kind
of sexist, but it's true physiologically speaking, it's true, right, Um.
And in conjunction with estrogen production, you've also got prolactin, which,
(25:14):
don't forget, is found in emotional tears. And a crying
researcher named is it William Fry William Fry and Muriel
trying the Mystery of tears? Okay, he Fry, I believe
actually in Alzheimer's researcher and he just did like crying
as a as an amusement. Yeah, he's one of those, um.
(25:40):
But he uh, he suggests that girls have about six
more prolactin in their bodies at any given time than men.
Um and as a result, they tend to cry more
and more frequently. Um four times as much as what
he says, Yeah, which is a lot. But again, no
one's really done a great, big, huge survey on how
(26:01):
often people cry. Yeah, this one, I don't know how
large it was, but it was a study, um the
head people record how many times they cried over the
period of one year. This one found women cried roughly
sixty four times compared to seventeen and men and everyone
underestimated men and women how much they would have cried.
(26:21):
But um, that seems low to me, or maybe I'm
just speaking personally as a weepy guy, you know, it's
like seventeen. I was like, I think sixty four is low.
Oh yeah, I mean I'll cry. And and something I
didn't see in here was crying over some over beauty.
That happens to me a lot too, or something that's
just so beautiful at a concert or a sunrise or something.
(26:45):
We look at that guy's light. Yeah, it's the most
beautiful thing I've ever seen. It is what do you
mean it a concert? Well, like the music or something like.
I saw the the Oh De Joy at Carnegie Hall
one time. When that kicked in, I was so like
overwrought I started crying. I um, I just I thought
Bonnie Prince Billy concert. Not No, I would cry at
a Bonny Prince Billy concert with the music moved me enough.
(27:09):
Um I I want to say, on behalf of everybody,
thank you for sharing so much of yourself in this one.
It's making the whole thing way better. I don't mind.
I mean, who cares, No, it certainly doesn't. Rosie Greer says, so. Um.
So let's see men also here we arrive at BS
hypothesis three. Okay, men cry less chuck because they supposedly
(27:34):
have smaller tear ducks or lacrymal glance. Cry fewer tears,
no less volume volume because women have larger Okay, well
you think that's BS totally Yeah, yeah, well maybe women
are equipped with larger ones because they cry more. You
(27:56):
think maybe most of the hyper season research I'm crying.
It's done in the back of cocktail napkins for some reason.
According to Women's Health Magazine, though Josh, men typically only
cry when they suffer a major loss and I find
this to be true for a lot of guys. Is
usually it's anger and frustration. Uh, or anger is how
(28:21):
they express frustration and stress, whereas a woman might be
more prone to cry if they're frustrated or stressed. Yeah,
that's probably been true for me, and I'm a weepy guy.
I think though, that it's a difference in threshold. Sure,
possibly because I think frustration and anger can lead to
tears pretty pretty frequently when you reach that point. Yeah,
(28:45):
I think it's it's just a difference in threshold. There's
a lower threshold perhaps in women, maybe not. I don't
know what I'm saying, like that would be my take
on that. Or maybe men maybe the the stereotypical his
street of men not being allowed to cry, or it's
just a sign of weakness. Maybe that leads to even
more frustration, so it's expressed his anger. Which is funny
(29:08):
because there is a study that's mentioned in this article that, um,
they did a survey of people saying, you know, uh,
does men crying bother you? And do you think it
bothers other people? And most people were like, it doesn't
really bother me, but yeah, I'm sure it bothers everybody else,
and like virtually everybody responded that way. So in other words,
people don't mind, they're just not talking about it. Well,
(29:29):
it's just like this this social ideal or societal ideal
that men shouldn't cry, and other people are bothered by it,
even though no one's really bothered by it. Thanks to
Rosie Greer, it's called the Greer effect. He was a
football player too. I don't know if I mentioned that.
Cool dude. He was also in uh, The Thing with
Two Heads, The Thing with Two Heads, The Man with
(29:52):
two Brains. He and oh man, it wasn't like I
don't think it was. It may have been William Holden.
It was a a rich um scientist who had his
head attached to a convict name played by Rosy Greer's body,
(30:12):
and they were like this odd couple. It was like
a creature feature Saturday shocker type. Never heard of the
seventies The Thing with Two Heads is think is what
it's called. Great movie. Trying to get that immediately that
in The Incredible Melting Man. I never heard of that one.
That was a good one. Was that because of a
at the ice age. I remember, that was my hypothesis.
(30:36):
You have a good memory. All right, Well there's our
tangent for this episode. Um. Getting back to men crying, though,
they have done some research and some people think that
a note noted man crying in public is actually good
for your career and good for your pr like John Bayner. Sure,
Tim Tebow. Now, do you remember when I think Florida
(31:00):
lost the Tennessee and Tebow cried? It was there was
some guy who's like, oh, Tebow, your tears taste so sweet.
It was beautiful to see. Yeah, I don't. I don't
dislike him as much now though, because of uh, I'm
not like some big fan. But I found that once
a player leaves or coach leaves the University of Florida,
(31:22):
like I love Coach Spurrier, you're you disgusted me for
even saying that. Now, once they leave Florida, I don't
have that time to keep that to yourself. I've found
that that's not the case with me. Like I hate Spurrier, still,
I can't stand Tebow Urban Meyer like everybody, I can't
stand anybody who has Florida stank on him. Rex Grossman,
(31:44):
I don't care who you're talking about that. I I
can't stand any of them. Well, you know, I like
that kind of consistency. I just got so angry accidentally
licked the mic cover. That's grass. Um. What else have
we got here? Oh? Well, why why we cry? Um?
There's again the fields wide open for any quack to
(32:05):
come up with an idea and get it published in
an article on how stuff works keeps us healthier? Yeah,
by removing toxins stress related hormones. But but your pooh, pooh,
But do you remember when we did how saunas work,
and we're talking about how, yes, you have um kidneys
and you're bladder and your euretha euretha. To get rid
of all these toxins, you don't really need to sweat,
(32:26):
but sweating does get rid of some of it, and
every little bit helps conceivably, Well, these stress related hormones
do exit your body through your tears. And I think
it's beyond just the toxins. I think that I believe
that holding onto the these negative emotions is not good
ultimately for for your heart and your body. I think,
(32:49):
you know, I think a good cry could help. I've
seen it, and you've experienced. I've experienced, you've seen it.
Don't back off now, yeah, you're right. Um, people from
colitis and ulcers tend to have a poor view of crying. Uh,
then people who don't have that, which apparently suggests that
if you don't cry, you're gonna end up with ulcers
(33:11):
in colitis. I don't know about that one, that's true.
You gave me something interesting on depression. Uh. They studied
forty four people with mood disorders. I guess the forty
person just they couldn't show up, you know. Uh, And
they said that they were in fact more prone to
crying than than people who they were comparing them to
(33:32):
who didn't have the mood disorder. But if you had
severe depression, a lot of times you had an inability
to cry altogether, which is really sad to me. Yes,
that's very sad. I guess it's just that dead inside
feeling that's awful. Um. There's also symptoms of crying excessively
(33:53):
apparently some people with PTSD, right. Uh. One of the
symptoms is excessive crying postpartum. Yeah, postponton depression, which I
didn't know this. Nine of women suffered from postpartum depression
following birth. What do you think it was? Lower? Yeah? Really,
I didn't realize it was that prevalent. Yeah, I did,
and I guess it would have to follow birth to
be postpartum depression. That was redundant. Uh. In this interesting
(34:16):
study in Israel, they had men sniff sailing solution compared
to real human tears, and that they found that when
they smelled the real tears or testosterone dipped and brain
scan showed less activity in areas associated with sexual arousal.
So that made good sense to me because if someone
(34:39):
if someone's really upset and crying, it's not sexually stimulating
to to you, unless unless you're you're real sick person.
So I would say it it's its sympathy and lowers
your sexy time feelings, which which kind of um gives
it a which kind of supports the idea that like
a social bonding theory of crying. Yeah, you know, you're
(35:00):
signaling to somebody else that you're not aggressive, you're you're
you're submitting, you're you're allowing yourself to be vulnerable. So
he just lay off of you, hold me, don't hit me. Yeah,
put the rock down. Did you ever see the doctor
cats about the man hugs. I've seen all of them,
but I don't remember that. There was one bit where
he was talking about the man hugs. When the man
hug and they slap. He was like, men have to
(35:21):
do that because I'm holding you, but i'm hitting you. Right, yeah, yeah,
I do remember that, right, doctor kats so good? You
got anything else? Um? And you know I'll post that
photo of me with the goggles always forget, but someone
Cooper will remind me. Then he'll turn it into something
sick and twisted. Right, Well, I was crying. We did
(35:44):
pretty good with that one. Did a little poop pooing,
did a lot of explaining, you did a lot of sharing.
No crying, No, there's no crying in podcasting. Uh. There
is crying on how Stuff Works dot com. You want
to go to your favorite search engine and you want
to type in how crying works into the search bar,
and that will bring up the how crying works article
(36:07):
on our sister site TLC dot com. It was definitely
TLC Uh if you want to do that, if you
want to learn more about crying, um, and if you
can't remember what we said about the onion and why
it makes you cry, and you want to impress your friends,
just it's in that article you'll be very happy to
see it. Um that is on your favorite search engine,
(36:28):
but it's on house stuff Works. I think I said
search bar and there's somewhere, which means it's time for
a listener mail. I'm gonna call this from Lori in Germany.
Like Germany, guys, Uh, you recently saved my butt and
I thought it would write in to tell you about it.
I'm an Atlanta girl. Originally, he was currently teaching English
(36:50):
at a kindergarten in Germany. Don't I mean garden of children?
I think so. Uh. In the last week before Christmas,
I showed my kids a Muppet Christmas Carol, one of
the best Christmas movies ever. If he asked me, and
as I'm sure you know, there was. There are several
ghosts in the story, but since it's a kids movie,
I assumed it would not be too scary for my
wee laws. Well. I showed the first half on Monday,
(37:14):
and then I was out sick for a couple of days.
When I came back on Thursday, I learned that one
of my little girls, six year old Anka, had barely
slept since she had seen the movie. Apparently the ghosts
were too scary for her, and her mother was apparently
stink sala, which is an excellent German word meaning stinking angry,
so she was stink salau. In an effort to run
(37:35):
damage control, I showed Anka and a couple of other
kids the pictures from the Muppets article on how stuff
works dot com the diagrams uh and this this was
a really great article as far as that stuff goes.
The visuals the diagrams showing how the muppeteers control the
various types of muppets were a really interesting to both
me and the kids and be a miracle cure for
(37:58):
Anica's spears. That cool little behind the scenes tour help
meet my wiwas It's a little disconcerting, isn't it. No,
you help my weas appreciate the cool design of the
ghosts instead of being afraid of them, and Anica's mom
was no longer stink salaz hazah to that. Thank you
for helping me teach my wiwas something new, and for
(38:21):
helping me get out of hot water as well. That
was the first time I've looked up an article after
listening to one of your episodes, But I'm really glad
I did it and thank you for what y'all do
and for the upbeat and open minded attitudes in which
you do it. Uh ydd site dahmma figured of translation,
y'all are awesome literal y'all or the hammer here them
(38:42):
That is Lori in Germany, he was definitely no stink
sala Yeah, I love you German. It's great stuff fun Um,
thanks a lot for that. Lori and Germany were glad
we could help you out. And uh, I urge everybody
and anybody you go check out our beloved site, how
stuff works dot com in mothership connection, how stuff works
(39:06):
dot com right indeed, um, if you want to let
us know how our podcast has gotten you out of
hot water, how how Stuff Works has gotten you out
of hot water. If you want to go on site
and find an article and say, hey, podcast on this,
We're happy to get links like that. You can tweet
to us at s y s K podcast. You can
go on Facebook at Facebook dot com slash stuff you
Should Know, and you can send us a plan on
(39:28):
fashion email to stuff Podcast at Discovery dot com. Be
sure to check out our new video podcast, Stuff from
the Future. Join how Stuff Work staff as we explore
the most promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow brought to
(39:51):
you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready,
are you
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