A new study reported by the BBC found that a woman’s tears, while arousing a man’s affection, can also kill his “sexual interest.
Noam Sobel, a neurobiologist at Horvath Weizmann Science Research in Israel, led the study. They collected tears that female volunteers shed while watching sad movies. The staff then alternated these tears with a salt solution for the male volunteers to sniff.
The results showed that the men who smelled the tears were more inclined to think that the women’s faces were not sexually attractive. And among the men who smelled the women’s tears, testosterone levels fell by an average of 13%. In addition, the male volunteers’ skin temperature, heart rate and respiratory rate also decreased after smelling female tears.
The researchers made it clear that women’s tears contain a “chemical signal” that causes men to lose their “sexual interest” and that this signal reduces testosterone levels and brain activity related to sexual desire. “This is the first study of the relationship between tears and sexual desire.” The study’s leader said that in a relationship, women should not try to impress men with tears, and that “laughter is more likely to stimulate his libido than tears”.