Sharing Chewed Up Food Is How Kissing Became A Thing
Scientists seem to think kissing started from sharing pre-chewed food with family, and dropped other fun facts about kissing.
By DAVID on June 29, 2018
How romantic! Yep, apparently humans started kissing not as a display of affection, but to share chewed-up food. If that doesn’t say “love,” I don’t know what does.
There’s actually been a lot of research into why people kiss. Back in 1915, some researchers were studying monkeys. They noticed that the adult monkeys started doing something that looked very similar to human kissing. They found out that the monkeys were actually sharing food that was already chewed. Who knows why, maybe one monkey had sore teeth, or no teeth, but yeah. One monkey chewed up some food, and shared it with another in what looked like a “kiss.”
Some other theories are buzzing around out there in research world too. Like kissing as a way to pass along “sex chemicals.” We may use kissing to judge someone’s “willingness and ability to mate.” We, as humans, emit various chemicals in our saliva, and if we find a compatible mate, well, there you go.
There’s a theory on why guys are sloppy kissers, too. Guys are naturally bad at picking up on chemistry. Seriously – they’re “less sensitive to chemosensory cues.” So the sloppy kiss might be a primitive instinct to “collect” as much “sex chemical” as possible. There’s a whole lot of interesting info over here, it’s really worth looking at. And also very entertaining.
