• Question: Why do people cry when they are upset? And smile when they're happy? I read somewhere that crying is an impossible emotion and tears are only there to over produce them when they were upset so... yeah... :)

    Asked by iamthellamaking to Jo, Kevin, Louise, Valeria on 21 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: Kevin Mahon

      Kevin Mahon answered on 21 Jun 2012:


      It’s just how our forms of communication have evolved – smiling is the way we have come to show happiness or friendliness and has roots deep in our ancestry – the same goes for crying.

      What is intersting about crying is that humans cry tears. Many, many animals have tear ducts (like us) and can produce tears, but not all animals cry out of sadness – that is a very human behaviour. Tears have a physiological function (lubrication for the eye) but the tears we release during emotional states like cying are called Psych tears – the true purpose and origin of this are currently unknown!

    • Photo: Joanna Cruden

      Joanna Cruden answered on 21 Jun 2012:


      Sometime we cry when we are happy too! I often wonder if we cry because we see our parents cry to show emotion and we have copied them, maybe if when we are young we don’t ever see anyone cry maybe we would not cry like we do. Just my musings!

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