Women's Emotional Tears Are a Turnoff for Men, Suggesting a Chemical Compound At Work

Friday, January 7, 2011 - 15:40 in Psychology & Sociology

The scent of a woman's sadness - manifested in her tears - is a major turn-off for men, according to new research published today. It is the first study to suggest tears of emotion contain chemical signals that influence others' behavior. Although men were unable to smell the difference between real tears and a saline solution, they had decidedly different reactions to each. Men who sniffed real tears became less sexually aroused by photographs of women than those who sniffed saline. Just to be sure skin was not the culprit, the researchers dripped saline down women's cheeks, to the same effect: Only real, fresh-cried tears turned men off. Related ArticlesPreview: Hubble 3D IMAX Puts a Tear in a Spacewalker's EyeResearchers Claim They Can Translate Infant Cries, But is it Just Noise?TagsScience, Rebecca Boyle, emotions, fmri, israel, movies, MRI scans, sad note, sadness, sex, tears, womenThe researchers, from the Weizmann Institute of Science...

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