Women’s tears lessen sexual arousal in men
Men who smell women’s tears have lower levels of testosterone and less physiological arousal than men who smell a saline solution.
This is the outcome of a research into the presence of chemical signals in tears of women.
The researchers knew that mouse tears contain pheromones that convey information to other mice. So they looked for similar kinds of signals in human tears.
Two women volunteered to watch sad movies and have their tears collected. Twenty-four men were then asked to sniff the movie tears or a saline solution. The men noted no particular smell in either sample of salty water. But the men?s own body chemistry could tell the difference.
When the men looked at emotionally neutral images of women?s faces after sniffing real tears, they reported less sexual attraction. The men also had lower levels of testosterone and less physiological arousal after smelling emotional tears compared with saline. Future studies will look at men?s tears, once researchers have collected enough videos of heartbreaking losses in big football games.
Source: Scientific American
