Why don't adults cry when they experience physical pain, when children do it so instinctively?

Question

Don't think its just a male macho thing as, in general I don't think women do either

Answer 1

Children do not experience pain (emotional and physical) the same way they do when they are adults. Think about times when you cry. You're typically under a larger amount of emotional or physical stress/pain than normal (or ever). Children experience physical pain as almost for the first time, and with the lack of cognitive ability to "think past it". Youths also experience emotional pain somewhat out of context until they are familiar with social and cultural norms.

And, of course, children learn that crying will often give them aid from a parent (regardless of if they are hurt or not!). As you get older, you learn how to deal with different forms of pain without having to revel in the emotions they cause until the pain goes away.

Answer 2

I think it is instinctive for children to cry as this is our first form of communication. As people grow up and learn the art of speech, the need for crying to express themselves is reduced. Also, the older we get, the less socially acceptable crying becomes so we soon learn to harness our emotions and express ourselves through other methods.
Experience teaches us that crying rarely gets us the attention we desire and it most certainly never solves our problems so we find other means of achieving our goals by trying out different methods until we acheive the desired effect.

Basically, what I think I'm saying is that as a child, crying is the most effective means to an end but as an adult people react differently to our tears, which forces us to explore our own abilities and learn to cope alone with life's demands.
I really hope this makes sense lol

Answer 3

Because adults have or know other ways of dealing with physical pain instead, they will obstruct it by pulling a face which makes the nerve endings go taut, any way this is not necessarily true, some adults do actually cry, it depends on how sensitive they are though.

Answer 4

Good question - I think children have a lower tolerance for pain. Also, children from infancy learn that this is a way to ask for help, just like when they are hungry. Also, we are often taught as adults that it is not cool to cry. People do, when they have serious injury accidents - screaming helps to deal with it I guess.

Answer 5

Because we've had a lifetime of it, we know what pain to expect if we jam our finger in the cupboard door or drop something on our foot.

Babies and young children cry because its all new and a bit of a shock to the system.

Mind you , sometimes do you ever get it where the pain is so intense you don't know whether to laugh or cry, you cant breath and it renders you completely imobile?

That happened to me when my housemate forgot to tell me that the front of one of the kitchen drawers had come off, rather than leave it off, she propped it back in the hole and when I opened the drawer above it came out and one of the pointy corners landed right on top of my bare left foot. F*ck me was that ever ouchy, and infact, I did cry.

Answer 6

who says we dont? I cried when I had all three of my children, and believe me, that hurt, but I also cried the other day when I dropped a stupid bottle of soda on my foot. I am 35....I mean, I didnt like, *sit down* in the parking lot, and hold my foot up in the air and ask someone to some and kiss my foot or anything, but I felt the pain and sniffled about it for a minute or two.... But I didnt let loose a flood gate or anything.... lol anyway, I would have to say it is the same reason you dont see adults throwing temper tantrums.. Now THAT would be SOMETHING to TRULY behold.... in the middle of WALMART..... WOW......

Answer 7

Usually, the act of crying would gain attention from the parent. As such, it is a cry for help and comfort. Good idea in the wild. However, if you are sneaking up on a water buffalo, spear in hand and you started crying because you stubbed your toe. Very short life expectancy.

Answer 8

We've built up a tolerance whereas children haven't. Also, children get scared because theyre unsure of how badly it's going to hurt. Some just cry for attention even though they're not really hurt.

Answer 9

Children cry to get attention. If they are in pain, they need an adult to deal with the problem.

This reaction is less useful in adults. A crying adult is less likely to get the right kind of attention.

Answer 10

in my opinion children cry instinctively because it is the shock of feeling the hurt, they know someone will come running, that there should be "instant soothing" its some sort of inborn survival mechanism , crying brings instant help. it alerts us that help is needed. ask any mum out there, if there is a baby or a child crying in any public place our heads will turn and our instincts automatically kick into "mommie mode" and reguardless of the situation. i have seen women drop their forks in resturants, clothing off sale tables and trun in the direction of that distress call. also if you listen in any store when a child yells mommy from one location you can hear 3-4 voices automatically yell back "here" or "yes"