Robert Provine, Psychology, in Globe and Mail

Emotional tears are a uniquely human phenomenon. Robert Provine, professor of psychology, says tears function to reduce ambiguity – that is, they may have evolved to give more oomph to facial expressions of emotions. The fact that animals don’t cry emotional tears – and that it takes newborns several months to add tears to their crying – buttresses researchers’ belief that emotional crying is a recent evolutionary development, said Provine.

The article, “For Crying Out Loud — It’s Good for Us,” ran Monday, March 22, in Globe and Mail.