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Scientists have discovered that chemicals or pheromones in tears appear to act as a "turn off" to men and can make them less physically attracted to the person shedding them. Scientists do not know why this is the case but believe it could be an evolutionary throwback to less sophisticated times when crying acted as a deterrent to amorous males at times of turmoil. Shedding emotional tears, as opposed to tears caused by physical pain, is thought to be a uniquely human ability, the purpose of which is unknown. One reason could be to send out distress signals and this could be chemical as well as visual. To test this theory, a team led by Shani Gelstein, at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, decided to test male reaction to the smell of emotional and non-emotional tears They collected tears from women watching a sad movie and then had a panel of 24 men smell them while at the same time looking at pictures of the opposite sex. This was then repeated using a salt water solution trickled down the cheek of the same women. When asked to rate the attractiveness of the pictures, the men who had sniffed the real tears found the images much less attractive than when smelling the fake tears. Tests also showed that their testosterone levels dropped and that areas in the brain associated with sexual attraction were dampened. The results suggest that emotional tears contain pheromones that control sexual desire. Although the study does not investigate tears collected from men, the researchers speculate that men’s tears – and possibly the tears of children – may contain similar or separate chemosignals. The study concluded that the experiment was relevant to human life. "We hug a crying loved one, often placing our nose near teary cheeks, typically generating a pronounced nasal inhalation as we embrace", it said. "Such typical behaviour entails exposure equal or greater than that experienced here, hence the effects we observed in the laboratory are relevant to human behaviour." The research was published in the journal Science.

Why crying can be a big turn off for men - Telegraph

I should have said it was a turn-off for everyone, even before you take into acount the smell. It's socially uncomfortable, boring and unattractive even just on its own. I guess there are some people who find it hot, but you probably wouldn't want to be at the back of a dark cinema with them.

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this story brought a tear to my eye.....I hid it.....

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So effectively the argument is that it's a sort of pheremonal damper. This makes a fair bit of sense. I have speculated myself that the "you're cute when you're angry" thing, which often drives women to apoplexy because they feel they are not being taken seriously, could also be a sort of switch to mitigate male violence.

I am not sure I get it.

Why then seeing your own children shedding tears make you all the more defensive of them and wanting to protect & comfort them?

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I guess there are some people who find it hot, but you probably wouldn't want to be at the back of a dark cinema with them.

Darn! Spotted again!

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Well if the pheremones damp desire then its is sort of forvibly suppressing a bunch of things that might otherwise be going on his head; sort of "dude, put your dick back in your pants and help". Plus, one could argue that its kind of a rape-preventative.