Kiss And Tell

by Maureen

We bumped into a recent Chicago Tribune article on a fascinating evolutionary psychology study on…kissing. Professor Gordon Gallup and two former grad students surveyed more than 1,000 undergraduates to uncover some interesting facts.

The Cliffs Notes, courtesy of Tango:

Men kiss as a means to an end, to gain sexual favors and to make up after a fight, the study showed. Women kiss to assess a potential partner, establish and monitor the status of their relationship and evaluate the man’s commitment level.

And:

Gallup traces this heightened selectivity among women to their disproportionate investment in the breeding process.

“Males and females have an equal stake in the production of offspring, but females bear the lion’s share of the costs,” he said.

Women endure pregnancy, childbirth and breast-feeding, and often act as the primary caregiver.

“The male’s role in reproduction is simply to serve as a complementary source of gametes,” Gallup said. A well-chosen male partner, however, is so much more: a source of support, protection and stability.

“You would expect females to have become careful comparison shoppers when it comes to the question of mate selection,” Gallup said.

Check out the full article to read more on the gender divide.