Buzz
Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, and Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, kiss (with their eyes shut!) on the balcony of Buckingham Palace after their wedding on April 29, 2011, in London, England. Christopher Furlong/Staff/Getty ImagesFrom Rick and Ilsa in "Casablanca" to Wills and Kate on their wedding day, and the "Kissing Sailor" on V-J Day in Times Square – these iconic moments would be unsettling if the people involved kept their eyes open during the kiss. It's a bizarre mental image, right?
There's a plausible reason why the idea of kissing with your eyes open makes you uneasy, aside from the unnerving proximity to another person's face. A 2016 study by Holloway University of London may shed some light on this. Published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, the study caught the media’s attention, and many quickly applied its findings to kissing (though the study never actually focused on it). Some science journalists pointed out that the original study didn't mention kissing, but see for yourself if the results make sense in this context.
In the study, psychologists Polly Dalton and Dr. Sandra Murphy equipped participants with small devices that emitted light vibrations. While using these devices, participants performed mental and visual tasks involving a letter search, while also reporting on the presence or absence of the vibrations. The researchers discovered that participants were significantly less sensitive to the vibrations when given more demanding visual tasks.
While the study wasn’t designed to explore kissing, it's easy to see why the results were quickly applied to that context. Kissing is deeply intimate and physical—shutting the eyes helps the brain focus fully on the intense sensations of the kiss. As Dalton told The Independent, "These results might explain why we close our eyes when we want to focus on other senses. Closing out visual input frees up mental resources to concentrate on other aspects of the experience."
Although she was likely talking about drivers' inability to notice a vehicle's tactile drifting lane alerts while engaging in intense visual tasks, there’s something oddly romantic about the connection, don’t you think?
Some strange kissing laws exist, and they’re downright amusing. In Indiana, for example, men with mustaches are prohibited from "habitually kissing human beings," and in Hartford, Connecticut, husbands are banned from kissing their wives on Sundays.
