Now, a Kiss Isn’t Just a Kiss. By Jan Hoffman. New York Times, October 28, 2013.
Examining the Possible Functions of Kissing in Romantic Relationships. By Rafael Wlodarski and Robin I. M. Dunbar. Archives of Sexual Behavior, published online, October 11, 2013.
Abstract:
Recent
research suggests that romantic kissing may be utilized in human sexual
relationships to evaluate aspects of a potential mate’s suitability, to mediate
feelings of attachment between pair-bonded individuals, or to facilitate
arousal and initiate sexual relations. This study explored these potential
functions of romantic kissing by examining attitudes towards the importance of
kissing in the context of various human mating situations. The study involved
an international online questionnaire, which was completed by 308 male and 594
female participants aged 18–63 years. Support was found for the hypothesis that
kissing serves a useful mate-assessment function: women, high mate-value
participants, and participants high in sociosexual orientation placed greater
importance on kissing in romantic relationships and stated that an initial kiss
was more likely to affect their attraction to a potential mate than did men,
low-mate value participants or low sociosexual orientation participants.
Kissing also seemed to be utilized in the mediation of pair-bond attachments:
kissing was seen to be more important at established stages of relationships by
low sociosexual participants, kissing was generally seen as more important in
long-term relationship contexts (but particularly so by women), and kissing
frequency was found to be related to relationship satisfaction. The findings of
this research showed very little evidence to support the hypothesis that the
primary function of kissing is to elevate levels of arousal.
Betty Everett: The Shoop Shoop Song (It’s in His Kiss). Video. YouTube. Also here.
