[oldtownroad]

The headline is technically accurate but miscommunicates the conclusions we should draw. The subjects sniffed women’s “emotional” tears but the control was an odourless liquid. Therefore what they actually validated was whether smelling something before engaging in a game designed to illicit anger reduced anger. What if they smelled perfume? The tears of a man? Non-emotional tears? Freshly cut grass? There’s zero evidence that women’s “emotional” tears were important.

[nmarinov]

The first mention of this indeed does not specify that both are odorless but the second sentence does:

> Before playing the game, the participants sniffed either female tears or a saline solution – both are odorless – but were not told what they were sniffing.

[mcpackieh]

If both are actually odorless then what's the mechanism? Magic?

Obviously if there is any effect then the tears aren't actually odorless.

[graemep]

My first thought was whether:

1. women react the same way 2. men's tears have the same effect

[wil421]

Babies produce a chemical in their heads that reduces aggressive behavior in males but does the opposite in females. It’s called HEX[1].

https://www.science.org/content/article/chemical-emitted-bab....

[formerly_proven]

Maybe but men don’t cry so your hypothesis is hard to validate.