When
your lips gently touch the mouth of your sweetie this Valentine's Day, you are
practicing a nonverbal interaction that takes place in over 90 percent of human
cultures and a ritual that has been shown to improve your physical health and portend
a happier romantic relationship. .
The science of kissing even has a name: philematology.
Researchers are investigating the mechanisms involved. Here is an article from
CNN that shares the newest research on kissing.
By Elizabeth Landau
CNN
CNN
The
science of kissing even has a name: philematology. Research on the subject was
presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement
of Science in Chicago on Friday.
"Kissing
is not just kissing. It is a major escalation or de-escalation point in a
powerful process of mate choice," said Helen Fisher, professor at Rutgers
University and author of the book "Why Him, Why Her: Finding Real Love by
Understanding Your Personality Type." Visit CNNhealth, your connection for better living
A
study by Gordon Gallup Jr., professor of psychology at the University of
Albany, showed that 59 percent of men and 66 percent of women reported that after
feeling attracted to another person initially, the attraction ended after the
first kiss, Fisher said.
Looking
at a sample of more than 1,000 college students, Gallup and colleagues found
that women also tend to emphasize kissing more than men, and are much more
likely to insist on kissing before a sexual encounter.
A
person receives information about the person he or she is smooching by locking
lips, Fisher said. A kiss transmits smells, tastes, sound and tactile signals
that all affect how the individuals perceive each other and, ultimately,
whether they will want to kiss again.
Women
tend to be attracted to male partners with a different immune system makeup
from their own, Fisher said. They subconsciously detect information about a
partner's immune system through smell during kissing, she said.
Research
led by Wendy Hill, professor of neuroscience at Lafayette College, looked at
how kissing affects the hormones oxytocin, sometimes called the "love
hormone," which is associated with social bonding, and cortisol, a measure
of stress.
The
first experiment, which took place in a student health center, looked at
college students age 18 to 22, and examined hormone levels in 15 heterosexual
couples. In the control group, participants held hands and talked with their
partner while music played. In the experimental group, participants were told
to open-mouth kiss their partner for the length of the music -- 16 minutes.
The
results showed that oxytocin levels in the women decreased after the session,
but increased in the men. Researchers had expected those levels to go up in
both genders; the decrease for women may have resulted from the artificial
setting of the student health center, researchers theorize.
A
second experiment in a more romantic setting -- a secluded room with jazz
music, flowers and electric candles -- looked at nine heterosexual couples and
three lesbian couples.
Researchers
found that the longer the relationship of a couple, the more the cortisol
levels declined in both partners. The heterosexual women, moreover, said they
felt greater intimacy with their partners than the heterosexual men or the
homosexual women did, while all groups expressed equal satisfaction in kissing
their partners. The researchers are in the process of analyzing oxytocin levels
in this experiment.
On
the basis of brain imaging, Fisher proposes that there are three distinct brain
systems involved in mating and reproduction: sex drive, romantic love, and
attachment. Sex drive compels us to seek partners, romantic love tells us to
commit to one, and attachment helps us "tolerate this person at least long
enough" to have a child, she said. Kissing evolved to stimulate all three
of these systems, she said.
Kissing
"can really either escalate a relationship or really kill it," Fisher
said.
We
feel such sensitivity to kissing partially because of the way our brain is structured,
Fisher said. The somatosensory cortex, which extends from one side of the brain
to the other, has a large portion devoted to picking up signals from the lips,
tongue, nose and cheek areas around the mouth.
"You
can really get poked in the back and not feel it very much, but just a feather
around your lips and you really do feel it," she said.
As for the origins of kissing, one theory is that kissing
evolved as an extension of the way mothers used to feed their children. Early
humans, who lacked jars of manufactured baby
Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com. Also check out Patti's YouTube channel at http://youtube.com/user/bodylanguageexpert.
Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com. Also check out Patti's YouTube channel at http://youtube.com/user/bodylanguageexpert.
Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com. Also check out Patti's YouTube channel at http://youtube.com/user/bodylanguageexpert.
