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 Men and women do not kiss for the same reasons. Photo courtesy of Photocase.com
There are currently three hypotheses why kissing has evolved in humans. 1) Kissing is used to assess the quality of a potential partner. The proximity allows olfactory cues and the saliva exchanged during kissing could potentially be used as a health indicator of the partner. 2) Kissing is a signal that the partner is ready for long term commitment and serves to create a bond between the partners. 3) Kissing increases sexual arousal. Men use kissing to seduce women and increase their sexual receptivity.
The researchers investigated these hypotheses by asking 1000 anonymous psychology students to answer a questionnaire. They found that men and women rate kissing significantly different in many parameters.
Women for instance are much less likely to have sex without first kissing their partner or with bad kissers than men. In other words, Women place much more importance on kissing for mate assessment and to initiate and monitor the state of a relationship. In contrast interpret much less serious than women and predominantly seem to use it to gain sexual favours. The study thus suggests that kissing has evolved for different reasons in men and women. Women predominantly seem to adhere to the first and the second hypothesis while men seem to adhere to hypothesis 3 and 2. Source: Hughes, S. M., Harrison, M. A., Gallup, G. G. (2007). Sex differences in romantic kissing among college students: an evolutionary perspective. Evolutionary Psychology 5: 612-631.
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