Whether spent exchanging expensive Hallmark gifts with your significant other or going to Anti-Valentine’s parties with your “non-desperate” single friends, hopefully your Valentine’s Day was bite-free. With the recent popularity of vampires, there has been a significant increase in biting during romantic intercourse – especially among the adolescent crowd. As romantic as Twilight role-play is, “biting can inject gobs of dangerous germs that could lead to blood poisoning,” according to Sheril Kirshenbaum, “kissing expert” and scientific author.
Practiced by 90 percent of cultures in the world, more so than any behavior in the world, kissing is the closest to being universal. Kirshenbaum presented her expertise to a diverse demographic audience during her “Science of Kissing” lecture on Feb. 11. Speaking to a hodgepodge of UT students, random Austin couch surfers and many bearded men in the Cactus Cafe, Kirshenbaum started with a brief history of kissing by referencing a 3,500-year-old Indian document describing a young lord licking a slave woman.
As licentious as licking a slave woman sounds, I’ve unfortunately seen equally promiscuous behavior on the mere streets of Austin. From all the PDA swarming the streets, we can probably conclude that Austinites are decent kissers, because 66 percent of women and 59 percent of men cut off budding relationships from a bad first kiss. Want more good news? You exchange more dangerous germs through a handshake than through a kiss. So all of you germaphobes that imagine licking Petri dishes when you kiss your lover, stop it. You should be more concerned with holding hands with gloves on.
One of the most interesting studies that Kirshenbaum mentioned was one that involved prostitutes. To really prove the power of kissing and in the name of science, scientists sat behind a two-way mirror and observed prostitutes at work. In the midst of all the bells and whistles involved in prostitution, a kiss was hardly ever observed. So does this prove that kissing have some sort of sacredness, or that the ol’ noggin just can’t handle the 90 percent memory rate of first kisses with ten first smooches a day? Regardless, kissing has an unprecedented intimacy and value that hugging, sexting, and smooshing just can’t compare to.
To further validate kissing as a “science,” let’s talk chemistry. Most of us have heard about all the different hormones that rage while kissing, or when secretly spying on a crush in Spanish class. There is oxytocin – the love hormone – that helps maintain social bonds, incur attachment and aid relationship maintenance. There is dopamine, the neurotransmitter associated with drug addicts, which is responsible for your cravings to be with your lover and also for the satisfaction when your cravings are fulfilled. And the last of the triple threat is serotonin. Serotonin can cause the obsessive-compulsive texting, phone calls, and thoughts of your lover, since it is the same neurotransmitter involved with obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Most of us are aware of hormonal changes that occur, but Clause Wedekins’ sweaty t-shirt study reveals a different chemistry of attracting. Yes, we all secretly love the smell of cologne-inundated Abercrombie stores, but this isn’t the scent that is important; it is the natural, no-cologne, no-deodorant scent of a person that can determine our relationships. In an experiment involving women sniffing the sweaty t-shirts of different men, results showed that women were most attracted to men with very distinct MHC regions as their own. MHC, or the major histocompatibility complex, is a region in your DNA sequence that codes for your immune system. What does this mean? Our noses are potentially helping us choose partners that will produce babies with stronger, more diverse immune systems. So as much as society tells us to follow our hearts, following your nose my not be a bad idea.
If kissing, hormones and scent are simultaneously so sacred, powerful and important to our relationships, what are some pointers? Kirshenbaum the kissing expert leaves us with her five simple points of advice:
- The obvious – personal hygiene. You don’t have to cake up on deodorant and perfume, but don’t be too hard on yourself on taking showers: the Earth can spare a six-minute shower for you.
- Lay a solid hormonal foundation. With a first kiss being so crucial, build a hormonal foundation by getting to know someone first and build a sense of attachment.
- Have a comfortable environment. As romantic as it sounds, don’t kiss while hanging off a mountainside or in your parent’s closet – you don’t want your stress hormones raging.
- When it matters, limit alcohol and drugs. Kissing acts like its own drug, and we were always warned never to mix drugs.
- Kiss often! When you find that special someone, kissing is so important to foster an attachment that words cannot fulfill.