• Pucker Up: The Science of Kissing

    August 7, 2011 7:49 pm 28 comments

    Thursday night I finally scheduled a date with a very attractive woman I met a few weeks before. All went well -dinner, club, dancing, light nightcaps at Moonshadows- then came the pivotal moment of every first date. Go for the kiss or hug?


    While this scenario plays out in front of many homes, likely millions across the world, we hardly ever take time to ask why do we kiss? Is it all in the lips?

    Study of Kissing


    From a learned response over time (likely from seeing others kiss and oral stimulation), people have created a habit of stimulating pleasure and “thrill” centers of the brain from what humanity has made a sensual act. Many scientists feel that kissing is more sociological in origin, though physically the pleasures it can cause are very biologically based. This could explain why people may, on average, spend more than two weeks of their lives kissing.


    History of Smooches

    As far as anyone can tell, kissing may be as old as humanity itself. There are theories that kissing may have developed in ancient times when mothers chewed for their young and would pass, by mouth, the food to babies, establishing the societal norm for affection. Others have theorized that kissing may take root in religious rituals, societal signs of peace, or other cultural customs related to symbolism.

    Some have even conjectured that kissing developed as signs of communication between early humans and early primate “cousins” during, yeah…gross.

    If you think that a kiss is all in the lips, come on, you got it all wrong, man. Jack White may have a little penchant for science as well as music. Kissing has been a habit of affection between humans for perhaps time since our inception. The question is: why do we do it? Is there more to it than just locking lips?


    Tips to Effective Canoodling

    Philematophobe. This is the word you are going to use if you ever get shut down when going for a kiss. It’s not that the person didn’t like you, it’s just they were scared of kissing. Remember it and use it wisely.

    Dr. Onur Güntürkün of Ruhr-Universität-Bochum (say that ten times fast) did a study on kissing preference. In it, he found that most people opt to tilt the head to the right when kissing. This may be due to handiness and preferences established early in fetal and infant development. So what’s the take home message? Tilt your head to the right when going in for that first kiss. It may seem a little more natural.


    Marilyn Monroe

    National Geographic

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