Attention Is a Basic Human Need

We’re not being vain. We’re just being human.

A close friend recently texted me that they felt “ashamed” because they “wanted to get more attention” for telling a story about their life.

I felt myself tense up around my friend’s statement and flash back to all the times in my life I felt like I had to prove I wasn’t doing something just for attention.

What a ridiculous thing to have to prove! A few years ago, when I was researching crying, I learned that the biological consensus about hurt-tears (different from onion-tears and happy-tears) is that they exist to attract attention from others in our species. Hurt-tears show we’re in distress and need help and support. Babies would be a lot quieter if we weren’t a communal species reliant on group collaboration for survival.

Bodies react when they don’t have enough of what they need. You’ve likely experienced this if you’ve ever gone too long without eating.