Study: Tears Contain Chemical Turn-Off

There may be a scientific reason that Blue Valentine makes for a bad date movie: After collecting the tears of women watching sad movies, researchers at Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science have found that they contain a chemical that temporary lowers men’s testosterone levels. Men were given tears and a tear-like saline solution to smell; the men who smelled tears found women less sexually attractive. They were not, according to the researchers, more empathetic. “The signal is serving to time sexual behavior,” said the senior author. “It is a signal that allows its user to say, 'Now is not the right time.' I predict there are other signals that say, 'Now it is.’” The researchers are now testing male tears, “as we finally have one good man crier” at their lab.