WEBVTT - The Nature of Tears, Part 3 0:00:03.040 --> 0:00:05.400 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind production of My 0:00:05.480 --> 0:00:14.760 Heart Radio. Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:15.040 --> 0:00:18.119 My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. And 0:00:18.160 --> 0:00:20.320 here we are with Part three of Tears. I think 0:00:20.320 --> 0:00:23.160 we have an interruption between parts two and three, but 0:00:23.160 --> 0:00:27.800 but here we are to conclude the series. That's right. So, uh, 0:00:28.320 --> 0:00:30.800 as with our past episodes where we've kind of just 0:00:30.920 --> 0:00:32.880 we've done part one in part two and then a 0:00:32.960 --> 0:00:36.280 part three and maybe more, Uh, this one is gonna 0:00:36.400 --> 0:00:38.680 there's gonna be a lot of catching up on things 0:00:38.680 --> 0:00:41.520 that we we've discussed a little bit on previous episodes. 0:00:41.560 --> 0:00:45.080 There's gonna be some new stuff. It's uh, I'm not 0:00:45.080 --> 0:00:49.080 saying it's disorganized, but it's gonna be. Um. Just what 0:00:49.159 --> 0:00:52.360 are you getting at, Rob, It's it's more or it's 0:00:52.360 --> 0:00:55.400 more organic. It's like we we are we're exploring and 0:00:55.440 --> 0:01:00.640 reporting back almost in real time. Okay, it's so um. 0:01:01.480 --> 0:01:03.360 You know. On one area I wanted to start with, 0:01:03.440 --> 0:01:05.800 I just wanted to share this little bit that I 0:01:05.959 --> 0:01:10.000 read in Adult Crying from two thousand and one by 0:01:10.080 --> 0:01:13.880 Nico Van Harringen, and and in it, the author here 0:01:13.959 --> 0:01:16.759 is just sharing just a couple of tidbits about how 0:01:16.880 --> 0:01:21.240 ancient society has thought about tears. Quote. In antique science, 0:01:21.440 --> 0:01:24.600 it was believed that tears came from the heart Egyptians 0:01:24.640 --> 0:01:28.760 about fifteen hundred BC, the brain, and this they attribute 0:01:28.760 --> 0:01:31.560 to Hippocrates from the fifth and fourth centuries b C. 0:01:32.600 --> 0:01:36.800 Or glands at the punka lachrymalice uh attributed to Galen 0:01:37.080 --> 0:01:41.319 in the second century. See. However, after Stinson described the 0:01:41.319 --> 0:01:45.520 tear ducks and the main lachrymal gland in sixteen sixty two, 0:01:45.840 --> 0:01:49.320 it was accepted that tears originated there. Yeah, there are 0:01:49.320 --> 0:01:51.680 a ton of great beliefs from the ancient world about 0:01:51.680 --> 0:01:55.440 the the anatomical origins of tears. Ideas about like when 0:01:55.520 --> 0:01:58.520 you're feeling a swelling of emotion that makes a bunch 0:01:58.560 --> 0:02:01.440 of vapors condensed in your heart and then they rise 0:02:01.560 --> 0:02:03.440 up to your head and have to leak out through 0:02:03.480 --> 0:02:07.760 your eyes. That's a good one, um. But I particularly 0:02:07.800 --> 0:02:10.760 like the idea of Galen that the tears come from 0:02:10.800 --> 0:02:14.160 the punk toa in the eyelids, these little holes uh, 0:02:14.200 --> 0:02:17.480 which are actually the holes through which tears drain out 0:02:17.560 --> 0:02:20.120 of the eyes, Because this is the same misconception that 0:02:20.240 --> 0:02:22.760 I had before I started reading about the anatomy of 0:02:22.760 --> 0:02:25.400 the eye and the tear ducks. Remember in part one 0:02:25.400 --> 0:02:27.840 we talked about how the tears are actually secreted by 0:02:27.880 --> 0:02:30.360 the lachrymal gland, which is above the eye, sort of 0:02:30.400 --> 0:02:33.480 above the eye, into the outside and then they drain 0:02:33.560 --> 0:02:38.160 away through these punkeda eventually into the lachrymal sack and 0:02:38.200 --> 0:02:40.680 the and the tear ducks in the nasal cavity through 0:02:41.440 --> 0:02:43.840 those are located on the inside of the eyes. And 0:02:43.919 --> 0:02:46.799 apparently I haven't tried to look in my own eyes, 0:02:46.880 --> 0:02:50.079 but I have seen images of this. Apparently you can 0:02:50.160 --> 0:02:53.320 actually see your own punk to laccry malice, the little 0:02:53.560 --> 0:02:56.639 holes in your eyelids that tears drain away through, if 0:02:56.639 --> 0:02:59.960 you look really close. I believe I've I've I've spotted 0:03:00.040 --> 0:03:03.160 mind before. Yeah, But but looking at them and thinking 0:03:03.160 --> 0:03:05.000 this is where the tears come from. It's like if 0:03:05.000 --> 0:03:06.919 you were to look at a bathtub and say, oh, 0:03:06.960 --> 0:03:09.360 this hole in the bottom, this is from which the 0:03:09.400 --> 0:03:13.080 waters rise and fill the tub for my bath But 0:03:13.120 --> 0:03:15.040 of course, if that is how you're filling your bathtub, 0:03:15.320 --> 0:03:19.519 something is wrong. You should not get into that tub. Oh. 0:03:19.560 --> 0:03:23.280 Revisiting our theme of the tear ducks being the sewer 0:03:23.360 --> 0:03:28.880 of the eye. Yeah. Now, as far as tears emerging 0:03:28.919 --> 0:03:32.320 from the brain, I really love that idea too, because because, 0:03:32.320 --> 0:03:34.280 on one hand, it is it's kind of correct in 0:03:34.280 --> 0:03:38.160 a sense when you're talking about emotional tears, especially, But 0:03:39.080 --> 0:03:41.640 the idea that's like tears are in some level like 0:03:41.800 --> 0:03:45.000 brain juice, I think that's lovely, especially when we're talking 0:03:45.040 --> 0:03:47.760 about how tears are generally seen as a as a 0:03:47.840 --> 0:03:51.040 kind of pure immission of the body. But if we 0:03:51.040 --> 0:03:53.760 were to think of them as is the leakings of 0:03:53.760 --> 0:03:57.520 of an emotional brain or an enraged brain or what 0:03:57.560 --> 0:04:01.000 have you, Uh, it paints a different picture. Now, one 0:04:01.040 --> 0:04:04.040 interesting thing we have heard back from a couple of 0:04:04.080 --> 0:04:08.280 listeners about is, uh, we we've gotten some resistance to 0:04:08.320 --> 0:04:11.400 the idea we discussed in previous episodes that humans are 0:04:11.440 --> 0:04:15.040 the only animals that are known to cry tears as 0:04:15.040 --> 0:04:18.279 an emotional response to shed liquid out of their lachrymal 0:04:18.360 --> 0:04:22.320 glands in response to emotions, which we want to be 0:04:22.440 --> 0:04:25.160 very clear, is not the same as saying that other 0:04:25.240 --> 0:04:29.080 animals don't feel emotions. It's just that tears are a 0:04:29.120 --> 0:04:34.440 particular behavioral anatomical response to emotions that appears to only 0:04:34.440 --> 0:04:37.480 be present in Homo sapiens. Other animals can have all 0:04:37.560 --> 0:04:40.800 kinds of complex emotions that we maybe couldn't even begin 0:04:40.880 --> 0:04:43.400 to fathom. They just don't particularly seem to have this 0:04:43.560 --> 0:04:46.960 response to liquid coming out of the eyes as a result. 0:04:47.640 --> 0:04:51.520 Um And and it turns out that this conviction that 0:04:51.760 --> 0:04:55.640 animals must shed emotional tears of some kind does seem 0:04:55.680 --> 0:04:57.760 to be It does seem to go pretty pretty far 0:04:57.800 --> 0:05:00.680 back with people making case reports here and there. I 0:05:00.760 --> 0:05:03.240 was reading an article that I'm definitely gonna return to 0:05:04.080 --> 0:05:08.679 in this episode that was by uh by ad Finger Hoots, 0:05:08.680 --> 0:05:11.440 who is a Dutch psychologist who's a researcher on tears, 0:05:11.480 --> 0:05:14.600 who we've mentioned in the previous episodes and we'll come 0:05:14.600 --> 0:05:18.560 back to again today and Lauren em Bilsma in Emotion 0:05:18.640 --> 0:05:22.320 Review in TwixT and they discussed the idea of emotional 0:05:22.360 --> 0:05:25.000 tears in non human animals. They say that there have 0:05:25.040 --> 0:05:29.760 been reports of emotional tearfulness in horses and lions. This 0:05:29.839 --> 0:05:33.360 goes back to plenty of the Elder Uh in crocodiles. 0:05:33.440 --> 0:05:37.440 This goes back to Alien, who was a who wrote 0:05:37.440 --> 0:05:41.840 in the second centuries. I think UH too like Shakespeare's 0:05:41.839 --> 0:05:46.120 talking about how dear can weep emotionally. Of course, reports 0:05:46.120 --> 0:05:48.880 of elephants crying emotional tears, this is something we can 0:05:48.880 --> 0:05:51.920 come back to in a minute, uh, guerrillas and so forth. 0:05:52.320 --> 0:05:55.440 But despite these case reports, they say that the best 0:05:55.520 --> 0:06:00.599 systematic studies that that involved surveys of veterinarians, zookeepers, and 0:06:00.640 --> 0:06:03.760 other professionals who work with animals on a regular basis 0:06:03.800 --> 0:06:07.680 or in a scientific capacity, has essentially yielded no evidence 0:06:07.720 --> 0:06:10.960 at all of emotional tears in any animal species other 0:06:11.000 --> 0:06:13.320 than humans. So it really does seem to be a 0:06:13.400 --> 0:06:16.240 uniquely human trade. But it is fun to look in 0:06:16.480 --> 0:06:20.039 to it to to to answer the question why have 0:06:20.240 --> 0:06:24.520 we come to believe or or say that certain animals 0:06:24.560 --> 0:06:29.320 shed tears? Right, So let's start with the idea of 0:06:29.320 --> 0:06:31.920 of crocodile tears, because yeah, this is this is a 0:06:31.960 --> 0:06:34.960 fun one because it touches on croc biology, folk belief, 0:06:35.360 --> 0:06:38.320 and of course alligator persons in the bog and fog um. 0:06:39.400 --> 0:06:42.640 I also wonder if part of it comes from from 0:06:42.680 --> 0:06:47.480 a Western bias against non spontaneous weeping, which I'll get 0:06:47.520 --> 0:06:49.440 into a little bit later, and I think I've touched 0:06:49.440 --> 0:06:54.000 on in previous episodes um a Western bias against it 0:06:54.040 --> 0:06:57.200 in their own culture, but also how it is utilized 0:06:57.200 --> 0:07:01.520 in other cultures. The idea that tears on purpose cannot 0:07:01.520 --> 0:07:04.880 be real tears. Um and And as well discuss this 0:07:04.920 --> 0:07:07.359 does not seem to be the case. But anyway, the 0:07:07.400 --> 0:07:10.120 idea of the crocodile here is that a crocodile sheds 0:07:10.160 --> 0:07:13.360 false tears for the prey it has just killed. And 0:07:13.440 --> 0:07:16.320 this tends to depict something sinister about the crocodile and 0:07:16.400 --> 0:07:20.160 something dubliquitous about the human you're talking about, because generally 0:07:20.160 --> 0:07:22.679 that's what we're talking about, like, oh, that politicians shedding 0:07:22.680 --> 0:07:26.440 crocodile tears, this person shedding crocodile tears, which is to say, 0:07:26.560 --> 0:07:30.360 they're putting on a false face of emotion, they're intentionally 0:07:31.160 --> 0:07:34.360 being emotional, or even if maybe in some literal cases 0:07:34.400 --> 0:07:37.960 they're literally shedding tears, and you doubt the authenticity of 0:07:38.000 --> 0:07:43.000 those tears. Yeah, And the idea of crocodile tears as 0:07:43.160 --> 0:07:45.320 something that's sort of like called out by the peep 0:07:45.400 --> 0:07:48.800 by the writers of natural histories and regarded in some 0:07:48.840 --> 0:07:53.160 way as evil or suspect does go back further than 0:07:53.200 --> 0:07:57.840 the idea of crocodile tears as a specific case of hypocrisy. 0:07:58.280 --> 0:08:00.600 I was real. There's a section about the history of 0:08:00.600 --> 0:08:04.840 the concept of crocodile tears in at fingerhoots book Why 0:08:04.920 --> 0:08:08.440 Only Humans Weep, Unraveling the Mysteries of Tears. This is 0:08:08.680 --> 0:08:13.360 from Oxford University Press. So Fingerhoots is tracing this idea 0:08:13.440 --> 0:08:16.760 and he mentions a writer, a bishop, a Christian bishop 0:08:16.840 --> 0:08:20.520 named sat Asterius, who is writing around the r. Four hundred, 0:08:20.760 --> 0:08:24.600 who wrote that quote crocodiles mourn over the human heads 0:08:24.640 --> 0:08:28.440 they devour and weep not from repentance, but because heads 0:08:28.520 --> 0:08:32.040 have no edible flesh. Uh. And so I like that. 0:08:32.040 --> 0:08:34.960 That's not quite yet to the idea of hypocrisy, but 0:08:35.080 --> 0:08:38.120 it is saying something about like the I don't know, 0:08:38.200 --> 0:08:41.839 the crocodile is so greedy and so cruel that even 0:08:41.960 --> 0:08:43.880 when it's got a human head in its mouth, it's 0:08:43.920 --> 0:08:46.560 not satisfied. It's just like this is not good enough meat. 0:08:46.960 --> 0:08:50.120 This is just so depressing. This head is is garbage. 0:08:50.400 --> 0:08:54.520 Now in terms of of actually observing crocodiles, and you know, 0:08:54.600 --> 0:08:59.040 and the eyes of the crocodile. Uh. So, yes, crocodiles 0:08:59.040 --> 0:09:02.480 do have non emotional tears because they do have to 0:09:02.559 --> 0:09:05.480 keep their eyes lubricated, and apparently if they've been out 0:09:05.480 --> 0:09:08.319 of the water for a spell, these tears may be 0:09:08.440 --> 0:09:11.960 more noticeable and may uh you know, and maybe and 0:09:12.040 --> 0:09:14.600 may be observed while the animal is feeding, if it 0:09:14.720 --> 0:09:17.440 is then feeding or messing around with with some sort 0:09:17.480 --> 0:09:21.360 of a carcass on the shore. I was looking around 0:09:21.360 --> 0:09:23.480 in a two thousand six study at the University of 0:09:23.480 --> 0:09:26.160 Florida found that there does seem to be something to 0:09:26.200 --> 0:09:29.920 these observations and it but into by that, I mean 0:09:29.960 --> 0:09:34.720 that people may have observed crocodiles appearing to shed tears that, 0:09:34.960 --> 0:09:37.920 to be clear, are not emotional tears. But it may 0:09:37.920 --> 0:09:40.800 be just due to warm air forced through the sinuses 0:09:40.880 --> 0:09:45.240 during feeding pushing out more liquid. Okay, so this would 0:09:45.280 --> 0:09:47.800 just be like a to the extent that this could 0:09:47.840 --> 0:09:50.120 actually be something you would observe. It's just a sort 0:09:50.120 --> 0:09:52.920 of coincidental byproduct of what the animal is doing with 0:09:52.960 --> 0:09:56.120 its head while it's eating. Yeah, it's like if you're 0:09:56.120 --> 0:10:00.440 observing certain varieties of of of the iguanas that that 0:10:00.520 --> 0:10:03.720 swim in in salt water and then they're blasting salt 0:10:03.800 --> 0:10:06.280 out of their face when they're on the as they 0:10:06.320 --> 0:10:09.120 do when they're on the shore, Like that is not 0:10:09.200 --> 0:10:12.840 emotional crying. It's it's it's you can also say that's 0:10:12.840 --> 0:10:15.080 not even crying, that's a step beyond. But yeah, we 0:10:15.200 --> 0:10:18.960 we can't take this, uh anatomical process and say that 0:10:19.000 --> 0:10:22.559 this is this might be some sort of an emotional outpouring, 0:10:22.600 --> 0:10:24.280 that it has anything to do with what's going on 0:10:24.320 --> 0:10:27.360 with human emotional tears. Though many years later this did 0:10:27.440 --> 0:10:30.320 develop into the idea that that is the origin of 0:10:30.320 --> 0:10:34.280 the expression crocodile tears. Now that the crocodile will will 0:10:34.440 --> 0:10:38.559 sort of weep false tears as a way of eliciting 0:10:38.720 --> 0:10:42.320 sympathy from a victim or like luring someone close to 0:10:42.400 --> 0:10:44.679 them and then uh, and then it will bite them 0:10:44.720 --> 0:10:47.199 and weep while it's eating them. Imagine if that was 0:10:47.240 --> 0:10:51.880 an adaptive trait. I don't think that would work. We 0:10:51.960 --> 0:10:54.800 see a crocodile crying and we're like, oh ah, a 0:10:54.880 --> 0:10:59.400 little buddy, he's sad about it. Clearly we can't lash out, um, 0:10:59.600 --> 0:11:02.680 but you you know, don't lash out at crocodiles anyway. 0:11:03.360 --> 0:11:07.760 But the other major animal that you sometimes see discussions 0:11:07.760 --> 0:11:13.560 about regarding their their potential tears, uh, these involve the elephant, 0:11:13.640 --> 0:11:15.840 and we actually heard from at least one listener I 0:11:15.840 --> 0:11:18.040 think more than one who wrote in on the topic 0:11:18.080 --> 0:11:21.600 of elephants allegedly shedding emotional tears. And the thing is, 0:11:21.640 --> 0:11:23.880 you do see this still make the rounds on say 0:11:23.920 --> 0:11:26.720 social media. And part of this is, you know, elephants 0:11:26.760 --> 0:11:30.520 are sometimes in in tough situations and they do, uh, 0:11:30.559 --> 0:11:33.360 they do seem to have have, you know, fairly complex 0:11:33.360 --> 0:11:39.800 emotional lives. So we're not denying that that elephants have emotions. Uh. 0:11:39.800 --> 0:11:42.239 And and when we're looking at some of these scenarios, 0:11:42.280 --> 0:11:44.240 you know, we want elephants to be able to cry 0:11:44.400 --> 0:11:46.840 to a certain extent, like we we knowing that they 0:11:46.880 --> 0:11:50.800 have emotions, we want to give them human tears. And 0:11:50.880 --> 0:11:53.120 you have various accounts that make the rounds on the 0:11:53.120 --> 0:11:55.680 internet about them shedding emotional tears, like look at this 0:11:55.720 --> 0:11:58.680 baby elephant. It's in a tough spot, it's shedding tears. 0:11:58.679 --> 0:12:02.040 Look at this mother elephant. Uh, something horrible happened. She 0:12:02.200 --> 0:12:05.560 is she is shedding tears. She is a displaying emotion 0:12:05.640 --> 0:12:08.480 and we can connect with it. Well. I mean again, 0:12:08.520 --> 0:12:12.720 I think this might be actually illustrative of something about 0:12:12.760 --> 0:12:17.439 the importance of tears as a social signal between humans 0:12:17.480 --> 0:12:20.280 that we we have this instinct that says, if if 0:12:20.320 --> 0:12:24.080 an animal is experiencing real important emotions, they must be 0:12:24.160 --> 0:12:27.200 capable of shedding tears, which again, it that does not 0:12:27.360 --> 0:12:29.679 follow at all, Like, you know, an animal could have 0:12:29.720 --> 0:12:32.679 perfect it could have stronger emotions than humans do and 0:12:32.720 --> 0:12:36.480 just not have this behavioral response to them. Absolutely, so 0:12:36.760 --> 0:12:41.360 we are not denying elephants complex emotional states, but we 0:12:41.440 --> 0:12:44.479 will denied in tear ducts because that's exactly what evolution 0:12:44.600 --> 0:12:46.920 has denied them. Uh And and this is where it 0:12:46.920 --> 0:12:49.920 gets really fascinating. I was not familiar with this or 0:12:50.040 --> 0:12:51.480 I had, you know, one of these things I maybe 0:12:51.520 --> 0:12:53.360 read in the past, and it didn't really like, you know, 0:12:53.440 --> 0:12:56.920 strike to strike a chord with me. But facts are facts. 0:12:56.920 --> 0:12:59.880 Not only do they lack tear ducts, they actually lack 0:13:00.000 --> 0:13:03.440 all of the plumbing associated with mammalian tears. So no glands, 0:13:03.480 --> 0:13:08.520 no ducks, no canals, nothing interesting. Yeah, they retain mucus glands, 0:13:09.040 --> 0:13:12.880 but nothing else. So one theory as to why why 0:13:12.960 --> 0:13:15.080 this is the case is that they seem to have 0:13:15.160 --> 0:13:18.760 evolved through a semi aquatic past and lost their tier 0:13:18.880 --> 0:13:23.720 systems during that time, much like modern pinnipeds lacked tear 0:13:23.760 --> 0:13:26.840 glands and tier ducts. Oh, this is funny. So there 0:13:26.880 --> 0:13:30.600 may sort of be an aquatic ape equivalent of the 0:13:30.600 --> 0:13:34.400 the elephant. Uh, the elephants evolutionary ancestor the sort of 0:13:34.679 --> 0:13:39.880 a life more based in waiting around in the water, right, Okay, 0:13:39.920 --> 0:13:41.760 but it's doing the opposite of what you know, we 0:13:41.840 --> 0:13:44.480 got to do that in the previous episode about the 0:13:44.559 --> 0:13:48.040 hypothesis that that human tears and our ability to shed 0:13:48.080 --> 0:13:52.559 emotional tears are somehow connected to a supposed aquatic eight past. Well, 0:13:52.600 --> 0:13:56.040 here's a creature, uh with with what seems to be 0:13:56.120 --> 0:13:59.320 at least semi aquatic past, and it lost the ability 0:13:59.440 --> 0:14:03.880 to shed years like other mammals do during the transformation. Interesting, 0:14:03.920 --> 0:14:07.040 this is, so what is going on with elephant eyes? Okay? 0:14:07.120 --> 0:14:09.120 So with the elephants. So the thing is you still 0:14:09.240 --> 0:14:11.719 your eyes still need to be moist That's that's the 0:14:12.080 --> 0:14:14.760 important thing here. You can't know you can't do without it. 0:14:14.840 --> 0:14:17.800 So with the elephant, other glands around the eye were 0:14:17.840 --> 0:14:21.720 essentially repurposed through evolution to provide moisture to the eye. 0:14:22.200 --> 0:14:25.080 So there's a third eyelid gland um we've talked about 0:14:25.120 --> 0:14:26.960 third eyelids before. You know, this is like you have 0:14:27.080 --> 0:14:30.640 the eyelid one and two are the ones that we 0:14:30.720 --> 0:14:32.680 have the top and the bottom, But then a lot 0:14:32.680 --> 0:14:34.720 of animals have a have a third as well that 0:14:34.880 --> 0:14:39.920 is involved. So the third island gland was an accessory 0:14:39.960 --> 0:14:43.200 gland repurpose. The third eyelid gland is found on other 0:14:43.280 --> 0:14:46.120 animals as well, but in the elephant it's extremely well 0:14:46.160 --> 0:14:49.120 developed to make up what for what was lost. And 0:14:49.120 --> 0:14:52.080 there are also some other tier cocktail differences with the 0:14:52.120 --> 0:14:55.160 elephant tiers as well due to these changes. So you 0:14:55.200 --> 0:14:57.360 can so scientists have been able to like look at 0:14:57.400 --> 0:15:01.320 the substance of the of of the the moisture the 0:15:01.400 --> 0:15:04.360 liquid in an elephant's eye, and they can they can 0:15:04.360 --> 0:15:06.840 see that while the actual chemical makeup of it is 0:15:06.880 --> 0:15:09.640 a little different from what you would find in in 0:15:10.080 --> 0:15:13.560 you know, typical mammalian tears. Okay, so despite their different 0:15:13.560 --> 0:15:17.240 ocular anatomy, they've got some kind of liquid, uh combination 0:15:17.320 --> 0:15:20.000 of like mucus and and and oils and some kind 0:15:20.000 --> 0:15:22.760 of liquid that maybe on and around the eye and 0:15:22.840 --> 0:15:24.560 that's just sort of hanging out there now. If they 0:15:24.600 --> 0:15:26.920 don't have tear ducks through which these things would be 0:15:27.280 --> 0:15:31.160 draining away. Where does the liquid go ah, And that 0:15:31.360 --> 0:15:34.040 is where a lot of these observations of elephant tears 0:15:34.080 --> 0:15:36.920 come from. Um they end up look like they're crying 0:15:36.920 --> 0:15:39.040 because of the Again, their eyes don't have drainage canals. 0:15:39.080 --> 0:15:42.440 Their eyes just fill up and then it streams down 0:15:42.440 --> 0:15:44.680 the face. Sometimes there's even a foam due to the 0:15:44.720 --> 0:15:48.600 accumulation of sivum and mucus. And this is fascinating too, 0:15:48.600 --> 0:15:51.040 because this reminds me of of my son's issues with 0:15:51.080 --> 0:15:53.760 his tear ducks. Having like that was that was the 0:15:53.760 --> 0:15:56.960 reason his his eyes would well up with tears so easily, 0:15:56.960 --> 0:16:00.640 not because he was emotional or or anything. It's just 0:16:00.680 --> 0:16:04.200 the drainage was was messed up, uh, so he would 0:16:04.320 --> 0:16:06.800 his eyes would well with tears just by virtue of 0:16:06.840 --> 0:16:08.960 not having a good drainage system in place until it 0:16:09.040 --> 0:16:12.080 was corrected with a tube. So if it's just common 0:16:12.240 --> 0:16:15.720 for elephants to have sort of liquid mucus, various things 0:16:15.720 --> 0:16:18.520 sort of dripping out of their eyes as a standard 0:16:18.560 --> 0:16:21.920 feature of of what's going on with their ocular anatomy. 0:16:22.080 --> 0:16:24.720 And then you pair that with elephants sometimes being in 0:16:24.840 --> 0:16:27.920 situations where they appear to be experiencing emotions, probably are 0:16:27.960 --> 0:16:31.120 experiencing something that you could call emotions, and you you 0:16:31.200 --> 0:16:33.280 pair those two things together and you think, oh, the 0:16:33.360 --> 0:16:38.800 elephant is weeping because of its situation. Absolutely yeah, So 0:16:38.840 --> 0:16:42.200 it's it's fascinating. I love how this, how this turns 0:16:42.480 --> 0:16:45.480 what we think about regarding the million tears on its head, 0:16:45.560 --> 0:16:48.520 And of course it plays into our our our tendency 0:16:48.560 --> 0:16:51.120 to want to see human emotions, not only human emotions, 0:16:51.160 --> 0:16:56.880 but but human anatomy and other creatures. Uh. And if 0:16:56.920 --> 0:16:58.760 anyone wants to learn more about this, I have to 0:16:58.800 --> 0:17:01.640 say that Rachel Warner has a great post on this 0:17:01.760 --> 0:17:05.040 at why Animals Do the Thing dot com. It's it's 0:17:05.160 --> 0:17:14.239 well sided and well written. I highly recommended all right 0:17:14.280 --> 0:17:17.240 well to come back to the subject of human tears 0:17:17.240 --> 0:17:21.240 and the evolutionary explanation for why liquid comes out of 0:17:21.240 --> 0:17:25.200 our eyes when we're experiencing strong emotions. Why this unique 0:17:25.240 --> 0:17:29.080 behavioral reaction that humans have to their own emotional states 0:17:29.160 --> 0:17:32.480 and to the emotional states of others. I wanted to 0:17:32.520 --> 0:17:35.160 come back to to this author I've mentioned several times now, 0:17:35.240 --> 0:17:38.879 the Dutch psychologist add Finger hoots Um, and one thing 0:17:38.920 --> 0:17:41.600 I wanted to start off with, was so there's a 0:17:41.600 --> 0:17:43.800 paper I said it a few minutes ago as a 0:17:43.840 --> 0:17:48.320 resource for the claim about other animals in the systematic 0:17:48.320 --> 0:17:52.479 surveys of veterinarians and zookeepers and stuff, uh, not not 0:17:52.560 --> 0:17:56.000 showing emotional tears. That same paper published an emotional review 0:17:56.040 --> 0:17:59.320 in twenty sixteen by Vinger Hoots and Lauren in Bilsma. 0:17:59.480 --> 0:18:02.800 That's a good or because they review a bunch of 0:18:02.840 --> 0:18:06.080 the different sort of findings about human tears and and 0:18:06.160 --> 0:18:09.000 their uniqueness all in the same place, and that they 0:18:09.080 --> 0:18:12.760 argue that crying should be considered a unique human behavior 0:18:12.880 --> 0:18:16.560 that quote obeys the laws of operant conditioning and is 0:18:16.640 --> 0:18:21.359 under the influence of biological, psychological, and social factors. It 0:18:21.480 --> 0:18:25.360 is not merely a reflex symptom. It is a complex 0:18:25.680 --> 0:18:29.400 behavior that appears to have that have has some kind 0:18:29.400 --> 0:18:33.919 of biological genetic precedent, and then is strongly influenced in 0:18:34.000 --> 0:18:39.040 its expression by situational factors, both psychological and social. And 0:18:39.119 --> 0:18:41.359 they point out some other interesting facts that sort of 0:18:41.480 --> 0:18:45.800 helps solidify the question of the question we're looking at here. Uh. 0:18:45.800 --> 0:18:48.440 And one of these goes like this, So, okay, acoustical 0:18:48.520 --> 0:18:53.240 crying the sound of baby makes is obviously an attachment 0:18:53.400 --> 0:18:56.800 behavior that maintains the proximity of the parent. I think 0:18:56.800 --> 0:18:58.800 this is pretty clear that this is the main function 0:18:58.840 --> 0:19:01.520 of a baby crying, that the crying of a baby 0:19:01.640 --> 0:19:05.640 draws the parent near to provide care, protection, and feeding. 0:19:06.520 --> 0:19:10.040 And this kind of thing is necessary for helpless human 0:19:10.080 --> 0:19:14.360 infants because human infants can do essentially nothing for themselves. 0:19:14.440 --> 0:19:19.160 They are uh, they are all. They're exceptionally helpless as 0:19:19.160 --> 0:19:22.720 far as young animals go. Now, at some point we 0:19:22.800 --> 0:19:26.560 know that newborn babies cannot yet shed tears. But at 0:19:26.560 --> 0:19:29.480 a certain point point, tears leaking out of the eyes 0:19:29.640 --> 0:19:33.439 become a standard part of the crying repertoire. So when 0:19:33.520 --> 0:19:37.320 when babies are displaying this attachment behavior, this uh, this 0:19:37.359 --> 0:19:40.200 acoustical crying in order to summon the care of a parent, 0:19:40.600 --> 0:19:44.800 it starts incorporating tears as part of that behavioral repertoire. 0:19:45.280 --> 0:19:49.560 And then the interesting fact is that as people get older, 0:19:50.240 --> 0:19:54.800 tears could be seen too in some ways replace acoustical crying. 0:19:54.960 --> 0:19:57.920 So as we age, as we get older, people tend 0:19:57.960 --> 0:20:01.640 to cry less frequently, and when they do cry, they 0:20:01.680 --> 0:20:06.040 don't display the acoustical wailing properties of crying as much 0:20:06.080 --> 0:20:09.719 as babies do. Instead, they just shed the tears, And 0:20:09.800 --> 0:20:13.360 that's an interesting fact as well. Why are tears retained 0:20:13.359 --> 0:20:15.720 into adulthood in a way that the wailing of a 0:20:15.760 --> 0:20:20.200 baby is usually not. Another interesting developmental fact about the 0:20:20.320 --> 0:20:24.919 role of crying is the effect of physical pain on 0:20:25.000 --> 0:20:27.719 the tear response. So the authors here right that quote. 0:20:28.000 --> 0:20:32.640 Until adolescence, physical pain is a very important trigger of tears, 0:20:32.680 --> 0:20:35.719 but for adults and the elderly it no longer plays 0:20:35.760 --> 0:20:40.520 a significant role. However, feelings of loss and powerlessness seem 0:20:40.640 --> 0:20:45.200 to remain important for crying throughout the lifespan. So when 0:20:45.280 --> 0:20:48.720 when children get physically hurt, when they're feeling physical pain 0:20:48.760 --> 0:20:51.080 they scuffed their knee or something, crying is a very 0:20:51.119 --> 0:20:56.000 common response that mostly goes away in adulthood. Adults rarely 0:20:56.119 --> 0:20:59.720 cry as a result of physical pain and instead maintain 0:21:00.359 --> 0:21:06.240 specifically emotional pain feelings of loss and powerlessness or helplessness 0:21:06.240 --> 0:21:10.600 as the primary triggers of emotional tears. It's this interesting. 0:21:10.640 --> 0:21:15.640 I thinking about about times that I've been hurt, uh 0:21:15.880 --> 0:21:18.600 physically hurt as a as a as an adult. Like 0:21:18.640 --> 0:21:20.920 the one example that I can remember where I was 0:21:21.000 --> 0:21:23.840 hurt and I really had to choke back tears. Was 0:21:23.920 --> 0:21:26.879 when um, I was with my my son at the 0:21:26.880 --> 0:21:29.720 time was very young, and he was he was looking 0:21:29.760 --> 0:21:32.280 into a cooler full of ice cream at a store, 0:21:32.400 --> 0:21:35.240 you know, in public place, and I leaned over to 0:21:35.280 --> 0:21:37.439 look in as well, right above him, and then he 0:21:37.480 --> 0:21:41.359 excitedly hopped up and like did a like a leaping 0:21:41.440 --> 0:21:44.240 head butt into my lower jaw, like just like a 0:21:44.280 --> 0:21:47.439 like a child upper cut and uh and and and 0:21:47.480 --> 0:21:49.359 it really really hurt for a seconds, like you know, 0:21:49.359 --> 0:21:53.600 it's like being punched, um with with an uppercut and uh. 0:21:53.640 --> 0:21:55.439 And I like I had to walk away for just 0:21:55.480 --> 0:21:57.280 a second, like not out of the store, but just 0:21:57.320 --> 0:22:00.000 a few feet away, and I felt like I felt 0:22:00.160 --> 0:22:03.919 like tears of of of associated with the pain. But 0:22:03.960 --> 0:22:06.400 of course that's a more complex situation there, because it's 0:22:06.440 --> 0:22:08.800 like you're you're there with your son, you're in a 0:22:08.840 --> 0:22:12.040 public place. I'm guessing there might be some level of 0:22:12.040 --> 0:22:16.040 like like maybe I'm trying to you know, on some level, 0:22:16.040 --> 0:22:20.439 it's like my pain needs to be related to the child, 0:22:20.840 --> 0:22:23.359 who otherwise is not going to understand what happened, because 0:22:23.359 --> 0:22:24.960 I think, you know, I don't think he'd really even 0:22:24.960 --> 0:22:28.960 picked up as much language at that point. Uh so, yeah, 0:22:28.960 --> 0:22:30.880 that's that's the only time I can think of where 0:22:30.880 --> 0:22:34.399 it's like a physical pain plus uh something that that 0:22:34.520 --> 0:22:38.320 provoked tears. Yeah, and it's not the adults never cry 0:22:38.480 --> 0:22:41.560 tears in a response to physical pain. It's just dramatically 0:22:41.640 --> 0:22:45.120 less frequent than it is for children. Yeah. Yeah, with 0:22:45.119 --> 0:22:47.879 with young children, Oh, it's like it's everything, you know, 0:22:47.920 --> 0:22:51.080 it's the skin, knee, it's the uh, the bump toe 0:22:51.200 --> 0:22:54.600