“Mistletoe can be deadly if you eat it, but a kiss can be even deadlier if you mean it.” – Batman Returns

Emily Leyva | Contributing Writer

Kissing is an important part of our dating culture. It’s written about in songs and poetry; essential plots of movies and TV shows are thrown off course or completed because of a scandalous and anticipatory kiss. Kisses can be detrimental or beneficial to a relationship.

But where does all this pressure for a good kiss come from and how did the practice of interlocking lips demonstrate love or lust for another person?

Philematologists (scientists who study kissing) believe that the habit originated from a primitive form of feeding also known as kiss-feeding. The method was practiced by mothers to feed their babies in order to nourish them with solid food. Before bottled milk and pre-blended soft baby food, and to help with the transition from breast milk to food, mothers would have to pre-chew the matter and transfer it from their mouths to their infants

What began as a primitive practice transformed into a sign of love and affection from mother to child and has now changed into an indicator of romance and intimacy between partners.

While a passionate make-out session can represent love or de- sire, an article written by Eden G. Fromberg, D.O. Osteopathic and OBGYN reports that it is also good for your physical health. Kissing can burn two to three calories a minute, lower your cholesterol and increase the levels of epinephrine and norepinephrine, which ultimately increases your heart rate. Kissing is an exciting phenomenon and one that can vary in deliverance and message.

According to Susan Sprecher, a philematologist, there are three main types of kisses: greeter, family and romantic. The greeter kiss is shared with others when greeting, usually on the check or hand; the family kiss is a bit more intimate but less likely to occur on the lips among family members. The romantic kiss is the granddaddy of all. It is much more likely to involve lip-to-lip contact (open or closed mouth) and is often shared between romantic partners.

More than 90 percent of cultures share romantic kissing or some other form of facial contact such as licking, touching or rubbing. Chimpanzees and other members of the ape family have also been documented to engage in kissing.

“They [chimpanzees] do kiss to make up after fights, to com- fort each other, to develop social bonds and sometimes for no clear reason at all – just like us,” said Kambiz Kamrani, a general physician and blogger for Anthropology.net.

Kissing is primarily linked to romantic courtship and casual dating. Based on a 2007 study of 1,041 college students by Gordon G. Gallup Jr., a professor of evolutionary psychology at the University of Albany, all but five had experienced romantic kissing, and in excess of 20 percent estimated kissing more than 20 partners.

“When two people kiss there is a rich and complicated exchange of information involving chemical (smell and taste), tactile and postural cues,” Gallup said.

As indicated in Gallup’s study, kissing can have profound consequences for romantic relationships, Evidence showed that bad kissers can damage the overall relationship. Most of the students who were surveyed reported that they were initially attracted to another person, but lost interest as soon as they experienced a bad kiss from him or her.

Lips are one of the most senstitive and exposed features on the human body. Lips are fused with nerve endings that send information to our brain to help decive whether to continue the experience or end it. A study by Arizona State University communications professor Kory Floyd and colleagues found that the act of kissing may also improve the parasympathetic nervous system (a control mechanism that takes over when the body is relaxed and comfortable). The firing of the nervous system then gives a good kiss that feeling of being drunk or high on drugs without the risky side effects. When couples kiss, five out of 12 cranial nerves engage and send electrical impulses between the brain, lips, tongue and skin, which creates a feeling of euphoria.

Kissing also causes physical changes to the body. Aside from heavy breathing, elevated heart rate and increased blood flow, the eye’s pupils also grow wider, which philematologists speculate as one of the reasons why humans close their eyes while they kiss.

Scientists have found that men and women kiss for entire- ly different reasons. Women, for example, are biologically wired to find a mate by kissing performance in order to ensure maxi- mum reproduction benefits (i.e., finding a mate who takes care of and protects her and her potential offspring). Evolutionary psychologists like Gallup and his team of researchers argue that because women are biologically and historically the bearers of burden for reproduction, they provide much more thought into making careful mate choices.

“While both sexes rate kissing as a highly romantic act, women consistently rate kissing as more important at all stages of the relationship than do men,” Gallup said.

In Gallup’s study, it was found that females prioritize the importance of kissing. Women were more likely to encourage kissing before a sexual encounter and more likely to pursue kissing during and after sex.

“Most females would never dream of having sex with someone they never kissed,” Gallup said.

As a striking contrast, many males reported that they would not mind having sex with another without kissing first and did not stress about the importance of their mate being a good kisser.

“Humans do it because it helps us sniff out a quality mate. When our faces are close together, our pheromones ‘talk’ – ex- changing biological information about whether or not two people will make strong offspring,” said Susan M. Hughes, psychology professor at Albright College. “Women, for example, sub- consciously prefer the scent of men whose genes for certain immune system proteins are different from their own. This kind of match could yield offspring with stronger immune systems, and better chances for survival.”

The motives behind a kiss may be difficult to interpret, but kissing can act as a clear indicator of when to pursue or terminate a relationship. Although men and women may like to believe that a kiss is much more sporadic and romantic than an evolutionary spouse-finding process, the routine and accurate history of it is all very primal.