A woman’s tears have the power to make men less aggressive – as long as they smell them! This was the conclusion reached by Israeli researchers who conducted a strange experiment.

They had a group of men play a game with a prize money that would make them angry and aggressive as the opponent would “steal”. They were then given to smell a) women’s tears and b) plain saline – a mixture of salt and water.

As it turned out, aggressive revenge behavior during the game was reduced by more than 40% when men smelled women’s tears.

The researchers published their study in the journal Plos Biology, stressing “We found that just like in mice, human tears contain a chemical that inhibits male aggression.”

Research may shed light on the mystery of why we cry.

Professor Noam Sobel, who supervised the research, said: “We have shown that tears activate olfactory receptors and change brain circuits associated with aggression, significantly reducing aggressive behaviour. These findings suggest that tears are a “chemical blanket” that offers protection against aggression – and that this effect is common in rodents and humans, and perhaps other mammals as well.”