Study: Kissing helps people find the right partner

A new study by researchers at Oxford University suggests there is more to kissing than meets the lips. Kissing helps people evaluate potential partners, and can be key in keeping a partner.

"Kissing in human sexual relationships is incredibly prevalent in various forms across just about every society and culture," said Rafael Wlodarski, the student who conducted the research in the Department of Experimental Psychology, in a release on Oxford's website. "Kissing is seen in our closest primate relatives, chimps and bonobos, but it is much less intense and less commonly used."

Wlodarski and professor Robin Dunbar asked more than 900 adults in an online survey to evaluate the importance of kissing in short-term and long-term relationships. Wlodarski says there are three main theories about the role of kissing in sexual relationships: kissing helps people assess the genetic quality of potential mates; it increases arousal; and it helps to maintain relationships.

"We wanted to see which of these theories held up under closer scrutiny," Wlodarski said.

The findings of the research, funded by the European Research Council, were published in two parts, in the journals Archives of Sexual Behavior and Human Nature.

Women rated kissing as being generally more important in a relationship than men. Men and women who said they considered themselves attractive, or who more often than others had short-term relationships and casual encounters, also thought kissing was more important.

Previous studies have also found that women, as well as women and men who have more casual sex partners, are more selective in choosing potential mates, suggesting that kissing plays a role in the selection process.

The study also found that kissing was rated as more important in long-term relationships by women. Lip-locking was more important before sex in short-term relationships than at any other time, and kissing was equally as important before and after sex in long-term relationships.

Kissing more often had a direct connection to the quality of a relationship, while the same could not be said for having more sex in a relationship. The amount of sex and kissing in a relationship together did have a connection with the quality of a relationship, the study found.

It also found that while high levels of arousal can result from kissing (especially before sex), it is not a driving factor behind why people kiss in romantic relationships.

Al Jazeera