Buzz
While kissing is often seen as a fundamental part of romance in Western societies, it’s far from a global norm. A recent study in the journal American Anthropologist reveals that fewer than half of the world’s cultures view kissing between romantic or sexual partners as a typical behavior.
Researchers from the University of Nevada Las Vegas and Indiana University Bloomington analyzed 168 cultures and discovered that just 46 percent engage in romantic kissing. This excludes other forms of kissing, such as greetings among friends or familial affection between parents and children.
Out of the cultures studied, only 77 practiced romantic kissing, while 91 did not. The researchers noted, “Notably, no instances of romantic–sexual kissing were observed among Sub-Saharan African, New Guinea, or Amazonian foragers or horticulturalists by ethnographers.” Romantic kissing was more prevalent in complex societies characterized by larger populations, social stratification, and centralized governance.
This discovery contradicts a widely referenced claim (found in both popular and scientific sources) that 90 percent of the global population engages in kissing. The researchers argue that this statistic is “arbitrary and factually incorrect” based on their updated analysis. Instead, kissing is a culturally specific practice—valued in some societies while viewed as strange or even unpleasant in others. Feel free to kiss passionately, but remember that intense lip-locking isn’t an innate human behavior, despite its frequent portrayal in films.
