The science of kissing!

A kiss isn’t as innocent as you might think. The act of locking lips sets off a chain of biological and psychological reactions. It informs the brain of your desire and determines your emotional attachment to the other person. Neurobiology specialist Dr. Lucy Vincent, author of Amour de A à XY (Love from A to XY), tells us more about the  science of kissing.

A decisive moment

A kiss is like having your first time all over again. There’s a before and an after. “Kissing alters everything. It’s a turning point in your relationship with someone,” Dr. Lucy Vincent explains. Just before you touch lips, you’re just two individuals, but afterwards your relationship with each other will have changed.

Why? “Kissing is a way of testing out a specific type of physical intimacy that’s different from sex,” our expert says. Mutual physical attraction triggers a desire in you to taste the other person, getting past the natural repulsion at coming into contact with someone else’s saliva. It’s a way of sealing the deal, and in a way epitomises the true meaning of sexual intimacy. 

Hormones and sexual desire

We’re no longer ignorant of the biological mechanisms behind eroticism, and kissing has its own particular function. The way kissing works is centred around a few complex biological reactions that are influenced by both personality and hormones.

Exchanging saliva is important, as it contains a wealth of information about the other person. The different hormones involved in creating sexual desire (including testosterone and oestrogen) are brought together during a kiss. “Testosterone is a key motivation behind sex drive, and kissing works like a trigger for the desire to make love,” Lucy Vincent tells us.

The hormone oestrogen also plays a determining factor in your relationship with someone. Our desire to become attached and invest emotionally in a relationship is partly driven by individual personality traits, but is also connected to the levels of oestrogen in the saliva.

A kiss communicates your intentions clearly at the beginning, both in terms of sexual desire and also how attached you want to become to the other person.