The sea in our eyes

There is saltwater that flows from our eyes: these are tears. Photographer Rose-Lynn Fisher contemplates their “topography” and different meanings. Economics professor Alex Kruger studies their distribution during the Olympic Games. Both have captured the ocean of emotions and messages each tear holds, as precious as the water of our seas

Temperature, precipitation, evaporation processes, and many other factors influence the chemical composition of seawater, it is, however, always salty. This is one of the few certainties we learn as children and can still rely on, for now. The average salinity percentage of seawater is 3.5: this means that for every litre of water, there are 35 grams of salt, 27 of which are usually sodium chloride. Known for its savory role in cooking, this compound is also the ingredient that makes our tears special, giving them a salty taste, while giving us the feeling that we have a hint of the sea inside. At least when we let our emotions flow.

What tears are made of

A tear is composed of 98.2% water, plus a small percentage of sodium chloride and minute amounts of other salts, proteins, urea, glucose, and an enzyme, lysozyme, capable of destroying numerous bacterial species. There is no precise recipe, as confirmed by experts in dacryology (from the Greek dakryon, tear, and logia, study). The science that studies different types of tears has identified three types: basal, physiological, automatically moisturise our eyes for lubrication; reflex, which respond mechanically to irritating external stimuli (including peeled onions); and psychic, stimulated only by emotional states. Thanks to the scientific contamination between dacryology and neuroscience, we now know that these three types of tears also have different chemical compositions. But what surprised scientists most was to discover that there are also chemical differences between psychic tears themselves. Depending on the triggering emotion, they may contain complex protein substances: hormones, enzymes, antibodies of different types and in varying proportions.

Emotions that can potentially cause crying have been associated with some particular substances: according to the American biochemist William H. Frey¹, stress would be associated with the adenocorticotropic hormone, while pain with the encephalic leucine, a hormone known for its natural pain-relieving power. This is not just a curious coincidence: emerging research suggests that, whenever we cry, tears would help us help us expel harmful substances in a functional way. For example, it is thought that after a traumatic event, eliminating manganese (essential for blood clotting) and potassium (a pressure regulator) can help prevent the risk of heart attack and restore psychophysical harmony.

The topography of tears

While science tries to find an explanation for every detail of the vast chemical-physical diversity of tears, in 2008 the American photographer Rose-Lynn Fisher decided to turn them into an impressive, unique and constantly evolving art project: The Topography of Tears².

Rose-Lynn Fisher is a North American photographer. She is the author of two books of photomicrographs: “BEE”, the bee seen through a scanning electron microscope, magnified up to 5000x (Princeton Architectural Press 2010), and “The Topography of Tears”, a series of tears observed through a standard optical microscope (Bellevue Literary Press 2017). Other projects include investigations into the “micro-kingdom” of bones, the ocean and other biological material. Her work has been exhibited internationally in galleries, festivals and museums of art, science and natural history.

Discover exhibitions and more on her website

The idea came about during a difficult and crucial period of loss and grief: she herself describes her work as «a visual investigation of tears, to make visible the invisible realm of my emotions. On a day of incessant crying, I suddenly wondered “What tears look like? Do those of pain look the same as those of joy?”».

Finding no answer, scientific or otherwise, Fisher began collecting and photographing her own tears whenever she cried, noting the emotion that provoked them. «This prompted me to pay more attention to the range and nuances of my feelings – she recounts – and to continue this personal research project, which originated as part of my artistic work, exploring the small field of a tear as a landscape and photographing its organic structures and random compositions».

In every tear, our multitude

Curiosity, and never finding one tear the same as another, drove Fisher to continue for years, even borrowing tears from relatives and friends. Although she had no ambition to carry out a systematic scientific study, she adopted from the beginning an approach somewhat similar to laboratory research. After “shedding tears” directly onto slides, she compressed some between two layers of thin glass and left others to air dry, then observed everything through the lenses of a standard optical microscope, a vintage Zeiss, mounted with a digital microscopy camera, with a magnification of 100x and sometimes 400x.

«Many variables affect the resulting image: the volume of tear fluid, evaporation or flow, biological variations, microscope and camera settings. The way I decide to process and print the photographed image of the tear further impacts on the final result» she explains. «Right from the start and as I proceeded, I realised that it was not possible to categorise tears by emotion or by visual pattern and structure. Every tear I observed had unique characteristics, a sort of signature».

Abandoning any attempt to rationalize her collection of tears, Fisher has not given up on her own project, but rather transformed it into a “contemplative exploration”. «Tears represent a fundamental component of our primordial language, as elemental as a newborn’s hunger, relentless as pain. They are proof of our inner life spontaneously overflowing its boundaries, spilling into consciousness – she explains – By photographing them, I perceived them as an exciting and impossible enigma of perception, a way of relating to emotions that today more than ever could give us a deeper awareness of what we really feel, beyond literal thought».

Tears question us, their ever-changing forms reminding us of the infinity of reasons why we shed them and the multitude of meanings others can attribute to them. They emerge in moments of catharsis leading to new clarity, but also in reconciliation after too many failed discussions, in the acceptance of an undeniable truth, or in moments of uncontrollable laughter or deep astonishment. «One cries shedding an old reality to which one is still attached, but also to celebrate a new beginning».

Tears are a direct means of expression that cannot be altered or manipulated, unlike words: they have an undeniable power.

«By looking at the images, I have learnt to appreciate the full spectrum of emotions, the way in which a transitory moment can be a revolution, a turning point, while perhaps at another moment there is no resolution to reach, but one must remain within what is, accepting it».

From tears to the ocean

Every tear carries a microcosm of the human experience, “like drops of an ocean”, according to Fisher, who is expanding her “Topography of Tears” from the human context to the more environmental one. Through her microscope, she now captures saltwater patterns on every scale, and explores the branched shapes of both drops and tears, echoing patterns of erosion etched into the land, or the fern growing outside her window.

It was an artistic choice, but also a social one: by juxtaposing the saltwater within us with that of our seas and oceans, which we are contaminating and wasting every day, Fisher is sending a strong message. A call to reconnect with the nature of which we are part and of which we are neither owners nor creators. An appeal to rediscover synergy with what represents life, shot after shot, addressed to everyone, to reconnect people with saltwater, but also people with people who perhaps live on different shores. «Tears often invoke and evoke true empathy and compassion, realignment with oneself and with others» she reminds us. «And in these times of fracture and polarization, it is important to recognize our essential similarities».

In the stormy sea of humanity, our tears connect us.

The inestimable price of tears

While the gap between rich and poor in the world has been continuously growing since 2020, as revealed by the 2023/2024 Human Development Report of the United Nations Development Programme³, tears try to bridge it, reminding us that we are all human, all equal and equally different from each other. Indeed, there seems to be no relationship between the wealth of a country and the propensity to cry, at least not in the athletes’ category: the tears of joy they shed at every victory are universal, totally independent of their wealth and that of the country they come from. To unveil this and other connections between tears of joy, origins, gender, religion and society, an ad hoc study by Alex Krumer, professor of sports economics at the Faculty of Business Administration and Social Sciences at Molde University College in Norway, has just been published in the journal Emotion, in collaboration with his colleague Andrew Musau⁴.

Alex Krumer, PhD, is a professor at the Faculty of Business Economics and Social Sciences at Molde University College in Norway. He holds a PhD in economics from Ben Gurion University in Israel and was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland. He is currently associate editor of the Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics. He uses sport as a laboratory to study human behaviour. He has published in leading behavioural economics journals. His studies have been published in newspapers, magazines, radio and television, including BBC, Times, Business Insider, Forbes, Harvard Business Review, Research Digest of the British Psychological Society, Freakonomics Radio, Der Spiegel, Telegraph and many others.

Visit his website

Observing the gold medalists from all 450 individual events at the 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympics at the end of their respective competitions and during the medal ceremonies, he took advantage of the uniqueness of the sports competitions to study this phenomenon as never before. «All previous research on tears has always been based on self-reported assessments, which present many limitations related to forgetfulness or shame associated with crying. Usually, to remove self-reporting biases, laboratory experiments are conducted eliciting emotional responses» Krumer explains. «But what could be better than studying those of someone who has just won an Olympic medal?».

Religious divisions and joyfulness

Analyzing these “fresh” and spontaneous tears with method and patience, the first thing that emerged was that «they are a universal characteristic of being human, there is no place in the world where people do not cry: we did not find cultural differences» Krumer states. This is not to say that there are no trends: African male athletes cry less, while South American male athletes cry more compared to other continents, for example. The most thought-provoking result, however, concerns the negative relationship between religious fragmentation within a country and the propensity of a winning athlete to cry with joy. The more an area encompasses different faiths, the less its inhabitants seem inclined to be moved. «It is difficult to determine the exact reason for our discovery, but there are several possible mechanisms that could be related». Krumer speculates: «The more religious fragmentation there is, the lower the level of patriotism, which could be a reason for weaker positive emotions after winning an Olympic gold medal».

He continues: «But the reason for this drop in tears of joy could also be armed conflicts related to civil wars or terrorist attacks. All of these are events that bring long-term negative effects on emotional functioning. This can also be seen in the poor ability of children exposed to these events to recognise emotions other than negative ones».

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Patriarchy stealing tears

Using a multivariate regression analysis of tears, carried out using individual characteristics and socio-economic variables, the authors of the study highlighted other aspects of crying from joy. Older athletes and women, for instance, cry more, perfectly aligning with current stereotypes.

However, it was also found that in societies with greater gender emancipation, as measured by the share of women in the labour force, men are more likely to cry with joy.

The expert tries to explain this data as follows: «It is possible that in countries with greater gender equality in the workplace, social roles overlap, and there is less divergence between men and women when it comes to positive values, sensitivity and modesty, and what may influence the propensity to cry».

Another element supporting gender equality in tears is the presence of male sports role models who cry, such as Micheal Jordan (USA), Tiger Woods (USA), Iker Casillas (Spain) and Roger Federer (Switzerland). According to Krumer, their example «makes “manly tears” more acceptable. In these societies, men’s crying can come to be interpreted as a strength rather than a weakness».

The smell of tears keeps violence away

Krumer, as an expert in behavioural economics as well, attributes a significant physiological role to tears as an emotion regulator. «People feel better after crying because tears release endorphins and oxytocin, hormones that help alleviate pain and improve mood, but also because they emit a social signal that helps them connect with others and receive empathy and attachment» he explains.

This statement recalls a recent study published in PLOS Biology⁵ with a strong global impact, which explored the relationship between tears and gender.

In women, this “saltwater” might reduce aggressive behaviours towards them, thanks to the presence of a particular and mysterious mix of chemicals with such an effect.

Drawing on previous research carried out on rodents, a team from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel made this discovery by working with two groups of men, asking one to smell tears shed by women and the other to smell a saline solution. The volunteers in the first group showed a drastic 43.7% decrease in aggressive behaviours and a corresponding reduction in brain activity in the prefrontal cortex and anterior insula, the brain regions linked to aggression. These data made them think that tears might function as a natural chemical protection against aggression, especially male aggression.

Studying tears to understand ourselves

This outcome has brought the scientific community’s attention back to the function of tears. «Now, we want to investigate the effect of women’s tears on other women and the effect of children’s tears on adults, particularly for infants who, unable to communicate with words, likely have tears and use them extensively as a tool to reduce aggression» Krumer explains. Once we acquire language, why, during human evolution, have we not lost the ability to produce tears in adulthood? We probably still need them, even as “grown-up infants”. Krumer thinks: «Tears, and the emotions they express, are part of the evolutionary process, and humans absolutely need them to cope with stress or enjoy happiness. The wide range of emotions we experience is what makes us so unique. In my opinion, they are and remain a fundamental part of rational decision-making throughout our lives – he explains – They help us better express emotions and stay true to our real state of mind».

They remind us that we are all different and all the same.

They are small but vital just like the drops of salt water in the sea, which fight the parasites that usually settle on the scales and gills of many fish, which disinfect the environment and protect the microclimate, including the one in which we live and are now re-learning to love. Tear after tear.

1. To have a look at the study on the chemical composition of tears, of the three different categories identified by the experts, see Frey, W. H., Desota-Johnson, D., Hoffman, C., & McCall, J. T. (1981). Effect of stimulus on the chemical composition of human tears. American Journal of Ophthalmology, 92(4), 559–567. https://secure.jbs.elsevierhealth.com/action/getSharedSiteSession?rc=1&redirect=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ajo.com%2Farticle%2F0002-9394%2881%2990651-6%2Fabstract ↩︎
2. To appreciate Fisher’s work on tears in its entirety, see https://www.rose-lynnfisher.com/tears.html ↩︎
3. For the 2023/2024 United Nations Development Programme report, see Programme, U. N. D. (2024). Human Development Report 2023/2024: Breaking the Gridlock – Reimagining Cooperation in a Polarized World. Stylus Publishing, LLC. https://hdr.undp.org/content/human-development-report-2023-24 ↩︎
4. For Alex Kruger’s study on Olympic athletes’ tears, see Krumer, A., & Musau, A. (2024). Golden tears: A cross-country study of crying in the Olympics, Emotion, 24(1), 27–38. https://psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2023-69213-001.html ↩︎
5. On the study explaining why women’s tears reduce male violent behaviour see Agron, S., De March, C. A., Weissgross, R., Mishor, E., Gorodisky, L., Weiss, T., Furman-Haran, E., Matsunami, H., & Sobel, N. (2023). A chemical signal in human female tears lowers aggression in males. PLoS Biology, 21(12). https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3002442 ↩︎