Despite its presence throughout a broad spectrum of material culture, current research suggests romantic-sexual kissing is not commonly practiced in the majority of world cultures.
A new study published in the journal American Anthropologist, “Is the Romantic-Sexual Kiss a Near Human Universal?” marked the first systematic attempt to document the presence or absence of the romantic-sexual kiss around the world.
The study also aimed to determine if a society’s relative social complexity was related to the presence or absence of the romantic-sexual kiss.
Justin Garcia, assistant research scientist at the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction at IU, co-authored the study.
“We entered this study expecting to provide support for the universality of the kiss, however, we quickly began to see the data leaning in the other direction,” said Shelly Volsche, a doctoral candidate at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and co-author of the study.
Utilizing cross-cultural research resources such as the Human Relations Area Files and the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample, as well as additional, unpublished material from historical sources and ethnographers, researchers examined data from across 168 cultures.
Researchers used the data to document where romantic-sexual kissing is present and where it is not.
Romantic-sexual kissing is defined as lip-to-lip contact that might or might not be prolonged. The research showed that romantic-sexual kissing was present in 77 of the cultures examined. Frequency was not included in the coding process.
Results showed that romantic-sexual kissing was present in 100 percent of Middle Eastern cultures, 73 percent of Asian cultures, 70 percent of European cultures, 55 percent of North American cultures, 44 percent of Oceanic cultures, 19 percent of South American cultures and 13 percent of African cultures.
There was no evidence of romantic kissing in Central American cultures and no ethnographers working with Sub-Saharan African, New Guinean or Amazonian foragers reported any instances in which they witnessed their study populations engage in a romantic-sexual kiss, according to the study.
The results also revealed that kissing was prevalent among Circum-Arctic foragers, for which the researchers do not have a satisfactory explanation.
Further analysis of the results using simple percentages revealed a positive correlation between a position on the scale of social complexity and the presence of romantic-sexual kissing.
But Volsche said there are still questions that remain unanswered.
“Since the romantic-sexual kiss is clearly a culturally evolved behavior, where did it come from? What conditions gave rise to the kiss in ancient times? What is its purpose?” Volsche said.
“Is there a dominant/submissive role involved? Is this a sign of trust and intimacy, particularly since we are putting ourselves at risk of pathogens by sharing saliva?,” Volsche added.
The study concludes that the romantic-sexual kiss might be seen as a potentially pleasurable component of sexual behaviors that varies across cultures and time, but is rooted in the universal human capacity for romantic love.
