We Are Not Alone!

[Dirtywater]

My wife showed me this yesterday and wanted to know what a flex was. There was a scientific article in the Globe in the Health section about why people cry. Here are the comments - scroll down to the highlighted comment!!


JefL wrote:
Very interesting article, but I must advise caution in one respect... In the third paragraph, Foreman writes "If emotional tears are indeed a uniquely human phenomenon, there must be an evolutionary advantage to crying, and possibly, a big one." This is absolutely incorrect, and something that we must fight doggedly so that it is not misunderstood in the public. There is NOT an absolute necessity that any peculiarly human trait -- nor any trait of any species for that matter -- provide fitness advantage. This Panglossian view of evolution is one of the most common misunderstandings of evolutionary theory. The present topic of crying is being teased apart in just the right way, and Provine's research shows a potential function for the behavior. But still, we must not assume that the behavior provides a fitness advantage until that advantage can be shown. Even a current use of a behavior may not have been naturally-selected for; it may be an "exaptation", to use Gould's popular term. When speaking of evolution, it is important that we keep in mind the principles of evolution. The process is NOT goal-oriented; the 'evolutionary tree' is really more 'bush-like'; and not all traits provide fitness advantages.
3/8/2010 7:33 AM EST
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diamondgirl wrote:
What JefL said. All it means is that is isn't enough of an evolutionary DISadvantage to have killed us, not that it is somehow a huge advantage.

Other than that, a very interesting topic.
3/8/2010 8:13 AM EST
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macwms1 wrote:
Apparently there is very little known about why we cry, other than we have emotions. I learned nothing from this report.
3/8/2010 8:40 AM EST
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Potlemac wrote:
This is absurd. We cry because we're sad.
3/8/2010 8:52 AM EST
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da2005 wrote:
The article is wrong is one important point. There are folks who use crying to manipulate those around them.

However, crying can also be a great relief from emotional pressure. The almost literal sense of lightness and and calm that can follow crying is an amazing ability. Perhaps crying is an evolved physical response to our tendency to restrain and suppress emotional responses - such as needing to fight or flee when subjected to tyrannical managers or other situations of emotional or physical violence.
3/8/2010 9:40 AM EST
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egomaniac wrote:
JefL is completely right. Evolution merely forces out traits that provide a lethal disadvantage for survival in a given environment. Crying may have no advantage at all, the simplest and probably the best explanation is that it just has no inherent disadvantage so there is no evolutionary pressure to weed it out.
3/8/2010 9:55 AM EST
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Fukowiman wrote:
I cry every time I see Al Skinner run the flex and see his team blow another in bounds pass.
3/8/2010 10:39 AM EST
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Rekording wrote:
If crying did not give advantage, then why would anyone use "crocodile tears?"

For me, a good cry is a release, that overwhelming sadness, heaving, and sobbing brings me back to center. As I get older, crying is less frequent but I am still a willing hostage to a melodramatic tear-jerker. The last time I was overwhelmed was at the news of a puppy drowning in an unfenced backyard pool. Even as I write this, it brings tears to my eyes. The reaction of others was to comfort me. I believe that the advantage that crying brings is in the extensions of sympathy and comfort from your familiars, and even from strangers. Who does not stop to help the crying child? Do you not feel a desire to embrace and comfort those who are crying? Do we not encourage those in deep sadness to cry it out? And do we not say, when the crying abates,

"Dry your eyes. Everything will be alright."
3/8/2010 10:44 AM EST
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greyvagabond wrote:
I haven't cried for about 15 odd years, since I was a kid and scraped my knee falling off a bike. It must be the Vulcan in me.
3/8/2010 11:11 AM EST
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