14 DAY TRIAL // Maybe timing their announcement to coincide with this year's Valentine’s Day, scientists at Rutgers University, led by anthropologist Helen Fisher, said yesterday at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) that saliva is the most important factor in a kiss, and that it helps release stress-reducing hormones. Also, the secretion was found to contain testosterone, a hormone produced more in men than in women, which is believed to increase a woman's appetite following a kiss.
“There is evidence that saliva has testosterone in it. And there is evidence that men like sloppier kisses with more open mouth. That suggests they are unconsciously trying to transfer testosterone to stimulate [appetite] in women,” explains Fisher. However, she cautions men not to get carried away during a kiss, because high amounts of saliva can easily trigger their partner's “alarm signals,” and can end in a failed first date.
According to the research team at Rutgers, this fact may draw its roots from our evolution as a species, as such a mechanism would have undoubtedly helped with our ancestors' reproductive efforts. In time, this allowed us to become dominant on Earth, and to finally be able to suppress predator species, even though by sheer numbers only, before technology developed.
And this trait, kissing, is also visible today in other animals, besides humans, including chimps, bonobos, foxes, elephants and some birds. This prompted naturalist Charles Darwin to say that this is an innate behavior, absolutely natural. And although some may say that speaking about this sort of things is gross, researchers say that it's in our best interest to do this, so that men and women would learn from childhood how to kiss perfectly, in a balanced way, which will ensure an optimum development of a relationship.
Otherwise, partners will grow apart, because most studies show that 66 percent of women and 59 percent of men are very attentive to the first kiss in a relationship, and that a failed one can easily undermine or even destroy the couple. Both partners reason that, if they don't match at first, then there is really no point in continuing, as this will always remain between them.
Either way you choose to kiss, keep in mind that the amount of saliva you put in a kiss is crucial. Too much, and your partner will simply walk away, or make fun of you with his/her friends. Too little means less stress-reduction, and will not stir your partner's appetite. In the end, only practice makes perfect.