Is French kissing a universal practice, or is it by contrast also based on cultural, religious, social or personal orientations? According to a recent anthropological study of 168 cultures worldwide  romantic kissing is actually far from universal. Indeed, the study shows that only 46% of cultures (largely represented in our TU/e Community, though) engage in intimate kissing.  

But consider the figures first: we seem to use 146 muscles when we pucker up and then swap some 80 million new bacteria when we lock lips. And an average person will spend some 20,160 minutes - or two weeks of his of her lifetime doing it - not so sure what an average person is in this case… The longest kiss ever lasted 58 hours, 35 minutes and 58 seconds and was achieved by a Thai couple in February 2013 (Guinness World record). How many trillion bacteria did they exchange? These two definitely belong to the 46% practicing intimate kissing.

Others from the 54% majority don’t fancy kissing that much: Mehinako people in Brazil, for example, find it gross, and they wonder why anyone would like to ‘share their dinner’. As shown by this example and confirmed by the study, intimate kissing is not common in traditional, agricultural, pastoral and hunter-gatherer societies. On the contrary, kissing has developed through the ages in complex, post-industrial societies in which there is time for and interest in erotic play. But practices around the world evolve in this respect too, as oral hygiene standards do too.

To finish on an optimistic note: other studies in philematology (the science of kissing) have found that romantic kissing helps you choose the right life mate and it also helps you live longer. As this seems to count for everybody in the world, make sure you share this positive info with people around you, but maybe you shouldn’t show it to your partner, as he or she may not like some of the figures… And don’t even get me started about eating garlic!