Tuesday, November 12, 2013

"Sniffing women's tears dampens sexual desire in men, study suggests"

"Women's tears contain a chemical signal that lowers testosterone levels and dampens sexual desire in men, according to a team of scientists in Israel."
They studied the effect on men of sniffing fresh tears, which the researchers collected in vials as they rolled down the faces of women watching weepy movies.

The surprise discovery may help scientists solve the mystery of why humans shed tears when they're distressed or sad.

Sobel said his lab is now trying to identify what chemical in tears might be responsible for the effect and whether it is also present in men's and children's tears.

"We don't think there is something special about women's tears," he said. "We definitely predict chemical signals in men's tears and children's tears too."

7 comments:

chickelit said...

Sounds like a hard experiment to control in that the woman is also there reacting to a movie. This introduces visual cues.

A blind experiment would involve fresshly expressed tears along with a saline (artificial) control substance.

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

But tears from the right individuals do increase one's Schadenfraude satisfaction levels.

bagoh20 said...

"The surprise discovery..."

Really? A surprise?

The Dude said...

The use of "dampens" is interesting.

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

But certainly sociopaths seems to enjoy inflicting pain on others.

Do dogs cry?

Palladian said...

Sniffing certain men's tears reassures you that they were really on Dumbledore's side after all.

edutcher said...

Sniffing women's faces when they're upset sounds like something most guys have sense enough not to do.