Tear researcher, Will Fred, is trying to figure out how it happens. One possibility he says is that tears discharge certain chemicals from your body, chemicals that build up during stress. When people talk about crying it out, "I think that actually might be what they are doing," he says. If Fred is right, what do you think will happen to people who restrain their tears? Boys, for example, cry only about a quarter as often as girls once they reach teenage years, and we all cry a lot less now than we did as babies. Could it possibly be that we face less stress? Maybe we found another way to deal with it, or maybe we just feel embarrassed.


眼泪研究者威廉·弗莱德正试图弄明白这到底是怎么发生的。他说，其中一种可能是，眼泪排放出了身体内的某种化学物质，这种化学物质是在感受到压力时形成的。当人们说可以把压力哭出来的时候，他说“我觉得这真的就是事实。”如果弗莱德是正确的，那么你认为忍着不哭的人会怎样呢？比如男孩子们到了少年期以后哭的次数大概只有女孩的四分之一，我们每个人也都比婴儿时期哭的要少多了。这是因为我们面临的压力少了么？也许我们是找到了应对压力的另一种方法，也许我们只是觉得哭起来太丢人。