According to a study from Oxford’s Department of Experimental Psychology, a kiss can reveal certain vital things about a potential future partner.
The study, conducted by Rafael Wlodarski and Robin Dunbar, involved an online questionnaire which asked more than 900 adults about the importance of kissing in both short and long term relationships.
The responses to the survey reveal that women apparently value kissing more highly in relationships than men, perhaps because women have to invest more time in having offspring due to the typical 40-week length of a pregnancy as well as any subsequent period of breast-feeding.
Somewhat surprisingly, the team conducting the research found that sex doesn’t appear to be a driving factor in the reasons why humans kiss. As Wlodarski explained, “We found that the amount of sex in a relationship was not related to relationship satisfaction.
“This is not to say that more kissing leads to a healthier relationship – it could be that a healthier relationship leads to more kissing, but the two seem to be related.”
In the survey, more frequent kissing was linked to higher-quality long-term relationships with a increased rate of partner satisfaction.
One Wadham student commented, “It seems a bit laughable at first, really, [but] it is probably worth pursuing in order to work out which reasons for kissing are stronger than others.”
A first year at Exeter College said, “Research like this almost takes the romance out of relationships – there must be some intellectual drives as well as biological or physical ones.”
Thomas Wilson, another Exeter fresher, was more eloquent, declaring, “I like kissing.”
