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The Wisdom of Psychopaths
In this engrossing journey into the lives of psychopaths and their infamously crafty behaviors, the renowned psychologist Kevin Dutton reveals that there is a...
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Some time ago, women in solitude cried into vials. Their tears were special. They held a chemical whisper that could rob desire from men….
Though this sounds like some kind of fairy tale, it’s in fact the description of a fascinating and important experiment by Noam Sobel’s lab at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. Using a combination of brain scanning and other testing, these researchers have shown that women’s tears contain a compound that covertly inhibits sexual desire in men.
Unlike many other major findings, the significance of this one can be grasped immediately: humans secrete pheromones that can affect another’s thoughts, brain, and biochemistry.
The term ‘pheromone’ was coined in 1959 by Peter Karlson and Martin Luscher to help organize their thinking about certain intriguing biomolecules reminiscent of hormones. Although studies of the potent, specific, and sometimes evocative effects of blood-borne hormones were well underway, these investigators were chasing a slightly different question. In a foundational paper, the two scientists speculated that hormone-like compounds might travel from one animal to another via bodily secretions. With such a signaling mechanism, they reasoned, one animal could “release a specific behavior” in another. A mere whiff or lick of another’s secreted message could prompt defense, pursuit, reproduction, or many other possible behaviors.
It was a far-reaching idea, and one that’s now backed by a wonderful variety of colorful examples. Nest-building ants, suckling rabbit pups, and mating elephants are all impelled by specific chemicals that trigger and modify innate behaviors.
But what about us? Are there any behaviorally meaningful signals in the bodily secretions we usually try to mask or scrub away? This has been a lively (if contentious) research question, and studying it has resulted in some intriguing reports of candidate human pheromones. Smelling a male sweat component, for example, can raise levels of the hormone cortisol in women, and other sweat-derived compounds may synchronize the menstrual cycles of women living in close proximity.
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12 Comments
Add CommentWonderful article...excellent science. And the cover photo...do die for. But.... missing question. How articulate are tears at carnying nuanced messages. Exa. I'm crying because you are leaving me..(war, trist, other) and so now would not be the time to procreate with you. V. I'm crying because I burned the cake in the oven. Again...the missing question is ,"How articulate the body's capacity to communicate information via hormone or hormone like substances?" It could be extremely articulate. Thank you for the excellent excellent science. There was nothing arm chair about your work or writing.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTom Barnes
Not sure how many people who read SciAm are conversant with Hindu mythology but there is a story (or as some people believe ancient history) of Ramayan. Seeta was kidnapped by Ravan, the demon king, who wanted to marry her. But Seeta was able to keep him away from her during all the days of her captivity. One wonders if her bottled tears were the secret of her success. Some food for thought for those of us who like to find links to science in Mythology!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSo I've read about this here and in the New York Times and I'm wondering why this study was only performed on men? What do women's tears do for women? Is it different for gay men? Gay women? I don't question the findings as much as I question any conclusion without further study.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI'm afraid I have to disagree with Tom. This does not strike me as excellent science, at least not as it has been reported here and in other media. I have not seen the actual paper. On the basis of what I have seen the researchers could legitimately claim to have found some slight evidence for their hypothesis.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThey used a small group which, no matter how carefully handled cannot remove the chance impact of a huge range of other variables. They did not identify the substance or any precise biochemical pathway by which it might act. As it stands they are a very long way from proving anything!
I continue to be amazed that reputable publications leap to fact at the first hint of possibility. Read the article again, the results are stated as fact. As a high school science teacher I look forward to presenting this to my year 10 students as an example of the need to understand the scientific method so they are not confused by the myriad factoids spun daily from inconclusive results by professional journalists who should know better.
This is a nice surprise. We've known or suspected that the strange proteins in tears and their accompanying oddball ionic stew effected soothing endorphin releases, that tear composition was sexually dimorphic, and that there is an evidentiary and economic case for tears to be both solvent and soluble protein receptors for chromatographic pheromone recognition, but to think that tears themselves were contained anything more than primer pheromones was unanticipated.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAn effective, broad-spectrum medical treatment for criminal behavior, borderline personality disorder, suicidal ideation, drug addiction, delinquency, and perversion has been discovered. It is a human pheromone, the healthy adult male facial skin surface lipid 'kissing daddy' pheromone. Unfortunately and presumably due to differing metabolic/neuronal pathways, alcoholism is little effected by pheromone treatment. One dose of 150-250 mg provides permanent relief of even the most obdurate cases.
See:
Nicholson, B. 1984; Does kissing aid human bonding by semiochemical addiction? British Journal of Dermatology 111(5):623-627.
Nicholson, B. 2009: Of Love (Amazon Digital Services, http://tinyurl.com/y8vxlxp ASIN: B0030MIG24) (Google Books, http://tinyurl.com/2bjjl7s 9780981522616 )
BBC-TV interview
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeD6JtqbSbY
typical anecdote
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVJbRaCVj20
Lameness of dogs and cries from women: hard to believe
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHas there been any thought to the possibility that rather than diminishing sexual interest perhaps the tears were heightening empathy and caring - which would seem to be a natural reaction to seeing someone cry and perhaps in an evolved caring person also something that could diminish sexual desire. The reactions and press attention to this study have saddened me - not to the point of tears - yet it is disappointing to see all the speculation about tears reducing a man's sex drive as if that's the only important emotion a man could express. I would be very interested in seeing the results of a well thought out study that considered what emotions and desires are heightened and which repressed based on a variety of experiences. Maybe then we could actually praise the human animal for being able to show socially adaptive and appropriate responses in response to a variety of emotional and behavioral cues.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thissex has just one meaning (or, it cannot communicate, be received as 'attentive nurturing')? maybe a larger sample is in order. and a larger group of experimenters. possibly a shortage of lovers in both groups.....there is an art imitates life scene in "Under The Tuscan Sun" - the heroine is sad & tearful, the distressed man tells her if she doesn't stop he will have to make love to her. that doesn't only happen in the movies....
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSo you are saying that you don't believe that dogs go lame or women cry? Or is it that you think they are fundamentally dishonest when they do go lame or cry? Your post makes you seem like a real jerk. Perhaps you would like to clarify so your meaning is readily apparent.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis is only a preliminary study and the author says so quite clearly. I like to think that the obvious expansions that you describe are planned for future research. I could be wrong but the tests you outlined seem to me to be required for this information to be of any real use. Anything less could actually be harmful by distorting perceptions with partial information.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisInteresting, but I agree with others that this is very inconclusive science. If tears actually have this "turn off" ability, what about other functions of tears - children's tears, men's tears, tears produced from strong emotion, not associated with sadness, etc. Perhaps the actual message is "if you know me, comfort me, protect me, but don't go beyond that." That might be a chemical message more consistent with an evolution-derived (survival) instinct.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHowever, I do like satirist Andy Borowitz' explanation: "women's tears tell men 'no sex now' and men's tears tell women 'I got the message'."
Rodent: so true.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI guess that also explains why this article is titled "Her tears will control Your mind" instead of "Her tears will control His mind"--all SA readers are by default males, and not only that, all scientific studies should be done only for their needs.