- - Exploring the art and science behind kissing

Susan SpencerFebruary 8, 2026 at 9:12 AM

0

A single kiss can leave a lasting impression, whether it's in real life or on the silver screen. But why, exactly?

According to certified sex therapist Chamin Ajjan, a kiss can play a powerful role in a relationship. It's all about attunement.

"What a good kiss is really about is you and your partner doing the same dance to the same tune," she explained.

Dissecting a kiss

Kissing can help gauge attraction. According to one theory, being close to someone's face allows you to assess pheromones, get a sense of a person's immune system and determine compatibility, Ajjan explained.

"So there's a lot that a kiss can do," Ajjan said. She admits she still thinks about a high school kiss that went horribly wrong, when a boy's tongue started "darting in and out" of her mouth. But it still had a silver lining.

"I learned to speak up for myself," she explained. "I learned to advocate for myself in that moment. If I didn't like something, I figured out how to do so in a way that was kind and constructive instead of humiliating."

With Valentine's Day approaching, she offers some advice: "Practice, practice, practice. There are so many benefits to kissing. It helps you to feel closer, more connected, more comforted. So we can all use a little bit more of that these days."

Matilda Brindle, a University of Oxford evolutionary biologist who spearheaded a recent study on smooching, agrees that kissing can carry significant weight. In fact, she says human ancestors might have been kissing as far back as 21 million years ago.

"Kissing does at first glance seem counter-intuitive, because you're swapping saliva with another individual. You know, if someone went and offered you a cup full of their saliva you probably wouldn't take it. And yet we're happy to kind of smoosh our mouths together and do that," Brindle jokes.

And yet, everyone seems to be doing it, including animals.

Polar bears, for example, share intense, muzzle-to-muzzle, foamy kisses. Prairie dogs, on the other hand, go for softer, more nuzzling ones. "They seem quite sweet, while the polar bears are extremely intense," Brindle said.

Iconic lip-locking moments

Even animated animals kiss. It doesn't get much more romantic than Lady and the Tramp over a shared plate of spaghetti. In fact, that moment of puppy love made InStyle's list of best movie kisses of all time.

Britney Spears and Madonna share a kiss on stage during the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards. / Credit: Dave Hogan/Getty Images

Fashion features director Madeline Hirsch worked on the list, along with deputy editor Jonathan Borge and editor in chief Sally Holmes. The editors debated pop culture's most iconic lip-locked moments, using a range of criteria to narrow the list.

"I think with a movie, especially, the dialogue almost makes the kiss in some ways. I think of 'When Harry Met Sally,' there's that moment, Billy Crystal says something like, "When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with someone, you want that moment to start now.' And the romance of that statement adds to, you know, the actual kiss," Homes said.

Celebrity kisses are always a hot topic for these three – in movies or in real life.

Hirsch said these standout kissing moments are "often the high point of a story."

"There are many pop culture kisses. My all-time favorite, I'd say, is Britney Spears, Madonna, and Christina Aguilera at the VMAs. That shocked the world," Borge said.

"The world. And I think it altered my brain chemistry as a kid or teenager," Borge added.

White House says it removed Trump post with racist video of Barack and Michelle Obama

Luigi Mangione yells out in court as judge sets New York trial for June

Racist video shared by Trump depicting Obamas as apes taken down

Original Article on Source

Source: “AOL Entertainment”