The Science of Kissing

There are three reasons to kiss:

Physical desire

Curiosity 

Love

Physical desire: Our bodies are designed to need physical contact. Physical contact exists in a range of forms-- someone's arm around you, a shoulder massage, playing with someone's hair, a hug, holding hands, kissing, sex... 
Babies have to be touched. Harry Harlow performed a series of studies using monkeys, isolating them from physical touch. In situations of complete isolation (basically being confined to a box as a baby) he reports this: 

No monkey has died during isolation. When initially removed from total social isolation, however, they usually go into a state of emotional shock, characterized by ... autistic self-clutching and rocking. One of six monkeys isolated for 3 months refused to eat after release and died 5 days later. The autopsy report attributed death to emotional anorexia. ... The effects of 6 months of total social isolation were so devastating and debilitating that we had assumed initially that 12 months of isolation would not produce any additional decrement. This assumption proved to be false; 12 months of isolation almost obliterated the animals socially ...

I'm not saying that if we don't get a hug every now and then that we'll die. The necessity for physical contact is not as strong of a need for adults as it is for juveniles. The thing is, most of the time, the more physical contact one gets, the happier and less stressed out they are. 


When physical touch reaches the level of establishing a physical relationship, you must be careful. It is something that we are naturally prone to desire but here is where other reasons to kiss must come into play.


Curiosity: While you may not feel a pull of physical desire or love towards someone, you may want to kiss them purely due to curiosity. Chances are, they're either one of your best friends or someone who has caught your attention due to something in their personality or physical traits that stands out to you. 


Love: This reason to kiss stems from an entirely different part of us than physical desire or curiosity. It is not a physical draw. It is not a mental draw. It is something that is part of your soul and your entire self that presents a desire to kiss. Once upon a time I heard an explanation of kissing that I will never forget. Kissing is for when you want to start a relationship with someone and for when words are not adequate. I think that's beautiful-- to kiss because your heart and soul care so much about someone that nothing you could say would even come close to conveying how you feel. 




What are the "right" reasons to kiss? Is it only one of those? A combination? All three? 
That's a matter of opinion. 


Just don't underestimate the power of a kiss. 


Or abuse it.