The Science of Kissing
Kissing is one of the most common ways to express affection. However kissing may actually have a biologically positive affect on the people participating. Over 90% of human societies express affection by kissing. Many other animals express affection with facial contact. Some animals, like the chimpanzee even kiss just like humans. This tendency lead many scientist to believe that kissing probably offers some type of evolutionary advantage.
Wendy Hill of Lafayette College put this belief to the test. Fifteen couples were brought in to carry out an experiment. First, saliva samples were taken to measure the levels of the stress hormone Cortisol, and blood samples were taken to measure the level of Oxytocin, which is a hormone associated with bonding. Before the experiment women naturally had higher levels of Oxytocin then men, and women who took birth control had higher levels than women who didn’t. Couples were then told to kiss, hold hands and talk for fifteen minutes. After each test saliva and blood samples were taken.
The results of the experiment was unexpected. After the kissing portion of the experiment, men’s level of Oxytocin increased like expected. However, women’s levels of Oxytocin dropped. The hand holding portion of the experiment yielded similar results, but to a lesser extent. Both genders stress level dropped in kissing and holding hands, more so in kissing. An interesting tendency reported was that couples who had been together longer showed a greater increases in both holding hands and kissing. So if your stressed out, find someone to kiss.
Alex Pavidapha (week 3)
posted by PWH @ 10:35 PM
13 comments
13 Comments:
Alex,
Cute Blog! I never really thought about why people kiss or what the physiological advantage is, besides feeling good. It makes sense that stress levels go down after kissing, especially if it’s between two people who have been together for a while. I can’t imagine two people kissing angrily. However, I would think that if it was a first kiss, stress levels would go up. People are self conscious, and expect a lot out a first kiss, especially in teenagers. I wonder how tests would compare with first or “random” kissing and kissing between couples.
-Sarah Bello
Awwww...
I never thought of kissing as having a possible evolutionary advantage. It makes sense that it would increase bonding hormones. In animal behavior, we learned that in prairie voles, there are more vasopressin receptors than in other types of voles. More vasopressin receptors means closer pair bonding, and pups with two parents to rely on usually do better than those with just one. There may be a similar effect in human evolution, but I wonder why the levels of oxytocin dropped in the females..?
(Jane de Verges)
I wouldn't have ever thought something like kissing can affect hormone levels. I wonder if it works the other way around. If women on birth control have higher oxytocin levels to begin with than other women, do they maybe have a stronger desire to kiss?
This was a fun blog.
-Emily Bell
Alex,
This is an interesting blog. I once read in an article that compared to women, men have a stronger sex drive. As you stated, “after the kissing portion of the experiment, men’s level of Oxytocin increased like expected, while women’s levels of Oxytocin dropped.” Since Oxytocin, is associated with bonding, do you feel that the increased level of Oxytocin in men has created a stronger sex drive.
Saad Choudhry
This sounds like a fun experiment to try and is interesting. Could this just be an emotion connection or bond already between the two and just because they are together they are less stressed? If no touch was there what would the results yield?
Samantha DeBiasio
wow... im not surprised to find out that kissing reduces stress levels. Also, I cant seem to find the evolutionary connection between kissing and hormone levels. It is ironic that women who are on birth control have higher levels of bonding hormones when their intent is to prevent pregnancy. ..
Rachael Carlevale
Aww! I think its interesting that women naturally had higher bonding hormones then men do, is this why women have the stereotype of being more needy or clingy? or why they look for long term relationships more than men do?
-Willow Alves
I love this.
It's not only super interesting, but it makes me feel even better about my long term relationship :]
I have always thought that kissing must affect the happiness levels in the brain, like serotonin but i had never thought about how it might be a stress release. And i thought it was interesting the level change between women on birth control and those not. Nifty idea.
Emily Ayotte
I've seen gorillas at the zoo kissing and always wondered why they were doing it. Now i know! I wonder if this all began with a genetic mutation that caused a primate to start kissing others, which gave him a little edge on the competition. Who would have thought that something as trivial as kissing, would be a key advantage for our ancestors.
-Calin Darabus
Great info in this blog. So good for February when Valentine's day just passed! Interesting to see the difference in women who take birth control and those who don't. Is there more on info on that? Thanks for passing the info that kissing reduces stress onto the class!
Crystal Cabral
Intersting, never knew that kissing could change levels of oxytocin. Would it be a psychological factor or a chemical factor shared through saliva that causes these changes? Would stress be rededuced if two people are not couple. Maybe this could be developed into a very effective stress management program.
-Peter Lau
I wonder if there would be a similar response in the 10% or so of human societies that do not express affection by kissing, but perhaps with touching foreheads or intertwining arms. It'd be interesting to compare the roles of the males and females in their culture and their hormone reactions when it comes to showing affection.
[Nathan Beck]
This was very well written and an interesting topic. I knew from other classes that women usually had more oxytocin than men but it was surprising to read that their levels dropped during kissing.
-Katie Cyr
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