Life, health, science, and psychology
Kissing Isn’t Universal, So How Did We Evolve With the Tendency To Kiss?
The science behind kissing
Why are the beautiful couple above kissing? Do non-human animals kiss? Do people from all cultures kiss? Is it healthy? What happens in our brains when we kiss? Does our evolutionary past have an answer?
If you had any of the above-mentioned questions in mind, then you’ve come to the right place.
Almost half of the human cultures kiss, whereas the other half thinks that it’s disgusting. Some cultures abstain from kissing because of religious reasons, and others because of culture. Albeit, it doesn’t mean that people from those cultures wouldn’t feel pleasure if they were to kiss.
Kissing-like behavior is still prevalent in all cultures. For example, Middle Easterners either greet with kisses on the cheeks, touching noses, or kisses on the forehead.
The kissing-like behavior has been found in non-human animals too. Animals that are the closest to us to humans genetically, like the chimpanzees and the bonobos tend to have kissing or kissing-like behaviours.
Chimpanzees kiss to reconcile with other chimpanzees. Whereas, the bonobos frequently kiss and even use their tongue. The bonobos are matriarchal and the females in one group use sex to end the conflict with other members and even other groups— so it’s no surprise that they kiss in a romanticizing way and like it.
Kissing might not be endemic to humans, but the way humans do it, is endemic to us if we look across the animal kingdom.
So why do we kiss?
Imagine how would it have been for the first couple in human history to have kissed. Perhaps it is erroneous to use the word ‘human’ in this context, and perhaps our small arboreal or hominin-like ancestors, who didn’t even belong to the genus homo, might have kissed when they were around.
One idea is that kissing has its origins in our hunter-gatherer past. Our ancestors were first attracted to ripe, red fruit, and then adopted this attraction for coital purposes, hence developing red colorations on genitals and lips.
Premastication
Another idea is that when we kiss, it gives us experiences of comfort, security, and love that are associated with breastfeeding. Our ancestors probably had mouth-to-mouth feeding behaviors like chimpanzees and other primates still do today. And surprisingly, some mothers also do that even today.
Research shows that kiss feeding also provides the baby with nutrients, resistance to infections in infancy and later life, and prevents immunological hypersensitivity like asthma. Premastication also makes it easier to digest food for the baby. So the baby can receive vitamins generally faster and better by the process of premastication.
Our lips are thought to be one of the most sensitive parts of the body. A possible explanation might also be that we haven’t discovered kissing and the pleasure it involves by accident. Since our lips are so sensitive, and we get rewarded with ‘good chemicals’ by our brain — dopamine, oxytocin, and serotonin. So it is highly unlikely that kissing was an accidental discovery.
In fact, most evolutionary psychologists agree with the mouth-to-mouth feeding hypothesis, which is common in primate species and birds.
Conclusion
Even if most cultures do not kiss for religious and cultural reasons, it doesn’t mean that kissing isn’t universal or that we haven’t evolved with tendencies to kiss and show affection through it — which has a lot of benefits as we’ve learned.
The origins of the evolutionary history of kissing are still debated amongst many evolutionary biologists and psychologists, but there are some strong theories (those mentioned above) that explain why we kiss. Perhaps they might be the only links to why we kiss.
Therefore, in conclusion, keep kissing folks.
“There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.” — Nietzsche
