Why do we kiss?

The Week magazine asked this in the latest issue.

More than 90 percent of the world’s cultures engage in mouth-to-mouth kissing. But if you give it some thought, kissing seems a little silly. The mouth is the organ we use for eating, speaking, and burping, and it’s full of nasty germs and sharp teeth. So why would anyone want to put this icky aperture in contact with anyone else’s?

From the Lakeland (FL) Ledger we find,

“This is a seminal paper,” said Helen Fisher, a Rutgers University anthropologist who studies love.

“Seminal paper.” She really said that.

You can tell a lot of information about a person by being in close proximity - from their breath, the taste of their saliva, things like that.

“If you are accepting a kiss you are putting yourself at risk of contracting an illness. And we suspect it raises levels of a hormone called oxytocin, which is related to interpersonal bonding,” Hughes said.

There you have it. The scientific analysis of romance. Makes you want to go kiss someone, doesn’t it?

As with many things the reasons men do it and the reasons women do it are different. From the Reading (PA) Eagle,

Men: Kissing is a mandatory stop on a fast track to sex. Women: It’s a significant event in beginning or maintaining a long-term romantic relationship.

Shocked? Yeah, I knew you would be.