WEBVTT - Sealed with a Bacterial Kiss 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:05.960 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.000 --> 0:00:13.800 Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:13.800 --> 0:00:16.720 My name is Robert Lamb and Julie Douglas. We're continuing 0:00:16.880 --> 0:00:22.840 our onslaught against Valentine's Day and all things Valentine's and 0:00:23.040 --> 0:00:26.840 valentine Zan and uh, today we obviously have to take 0:00:26.880 --> 0:00:30.560 on one of the big ones, kissing, Yeah, because I mean, 0:00:30.640 --> 0:00:34.720 what could be more emblematic or even like a physical 0:00:35.000 --> 0:00:39.720 embodiment of love and hearts? Kiss? And we mean to 0:00:39.800 --> 0:00:43.559 dissemble this and show it for what it really is. 0:00:43.920 --> 0:00:45.760 And that's a good question. What is it? Right? We're 0:00:45.760 --> 0:00:47.760 gonna get get to that. Is it something we learn? 0:00:47.960 --> 0:00:50.280 Is it something that we do instinctively? And if we 0:00:50.280 --> 0:00:52.960 do it instinctively, why are we doing it? What possible 0:00:53.000 --> 0:00:56.640 service uh could could could there be in placing your 0:00:56.680 --> 0:00:58.960 lips on another creature's lips and then moving those lips 0:00:59.000 --> 0:01:02.360 around and then what happens back terially? What's the profile 0:01:02.480 --> 0:01:05.080 going on there? Um? And before we dive into some 0:01:05.160 --> 0:01:07.080 of that and even some of the history of the kiss, 0:01:07.200 --> 0:01:11.120 I wanted to mention that Ship Walter, who was writing 0:01:11.160 --> 0:01:14.880 for Scientific American, has a great sort of like lips unfold. 0:01:15.040 --> 0:01:19.479 The kiss from this starry eyed perspective, says quote. When 0:01:19.520 --> 0:01:23.000 passion takes a grip, a kiss locks two humans together 0:01:23.080 --> 0:01:26.880 in an exchange of sense, tastes, textures, secrets, and emotions. 0:01:27.360 --> 0:01:33.800 We kiss furitivelylstiviously, gently, shyly, hungrily, and exuberantly. We kiss 0:01:33.880 --> 0:01:36.480 in broad daylight and in the dead of night. We 0:01:36.600 --> 0:01:42.160 give ceremonial kisses, affectionate kisses, Hollywood air kisses, kisses of death, 0:01:42.400 --> 0:01:48.640 and at least in fairy tales, pecks that revived princesses. Nice, 0:01:48.680 --> 0:01:51.000 I mean, and indeed, there are a lot of different kisses, 0:01:51.040 --> 0:01:54.400 so there's there's no there's no single kiss. There's the 0:01:54.400 --> 0:01:56.960 In fact, if you go by the work of seventeenth 0:01:56.960 --> 0:02:00.000 century German poet, literally historian and translator Martin von kim 0:02:00.080 --> 0:02:03.800 be Uh, he wrote a thousand page encyclopedia of kissing 0:02:03.840 --> 0:02:08.440 that recognized twenty different varieties, including two notable ones that 0:02:08.520 --> 0:02:12.160 kiss bestowed by superiors on inferiors, which we don't really 0:02:12.160 --> 0:02:14.920 get around here at the House of Works, thankfully, and 0:02:15.080 --> 0:02:18.240 uh and also hypocritical kiss. But you mentioned the kiss 0:02:18.280 --> 0:02:20.480 of the kiss of death because of doom. I mean, 0:02:20.520 --> 0:02:22.600 that's a big one too, and instantly brings my mind 0:02:22.639 --> 0:02:26.680 to the Godfather. And of course, uh, you know the 0:02:26.720 --> 0:02:29.560 story of Judas and Christ betraying him with a kiss. 0:02:29.960 --> 0:02:33.359 But the kiss goes back far, far deeper in history 0:02:33.360 --> 0:02:37.320 than that it does. The first documentation of kissing is 0:02:37.320 --> 0:02:41.480 in the four Vedic sanscript texts written in India around 0:02:42.680 --> 0:02:45.240 and it describes the act. And then you have an 0:02:45.280 --> 0:02:49.320 Indian epic poem, Maha Barata, which mentions kissing. And this 0:02:49.440 --> 0:02:52.880 actual this poem was passed down orally for centuries and 0:02:52.880 --> 0:02:56.960 then it was finally written down in threeft C. Yeah, 0:02:57.000 --> 0:03:00.000 we've actually talked about the Mahabarada before. Tells the story 0:03:00.000 --> 0:03:03.480 of the great rivalry between the Curus and the Pandavas 0:03:04.000 --> 0:03:06.679 starting in the middle of the first millennium um b c. 0:03:07.720 --> 0:03:10.520 And you have gods and kings and also the wonderful stuff. 0:03:10.520 --> 0:03:13.800 There's a there's a great uh play and film adaptation 0:03:13.800 --> 0:03:16.880 of the play out there that the English language that 0:03:16.919 --> 0:03:19.079 I definitely recommend people check out. Yeah, it's a very 0:03:19.160 --> 0:03:23.359 rich narrative. Now, another very rich narrative that features kissing 0:03:23.600 --> 0:03:27.519 is the Kama Sutra, which was written in the sixth century. 0:03:27.680 --> 0:03:30.840 Now you throw in a little bit of Alexander the 0:03:30.919 --> 0:03:38.080 Great invading India, and you have, you know, public kissing 0:03:38.200 --> 0:03:42.320 becoming a thing, and it begins to spread, say to 0:03:42.440 --> 0:03:45.600 the Roman Empire, and it sort of comes out of 0:03:45.680 --> 0:03:48.760 the bedroom or the homes of people and out onto 0:03:48.760 --> 0:03:52.480 the streets. Though not entirely so, I mean, this is 0:03:52.560 --> 0:03:56.000 this is very much a Western thing. Yeah. The stats 0:03:56.040 --> 0:03:58.920 tend to say that it's practiced by at least nine 0:03:59.360 --> 0:04:02.840 of cultures among sexual and romantic partners, and that tim 0:04:02.840 --> 0:04:04.840 person is interesting. We started looking back at their the 0:04:04.880 --> 0:04:08.560 accounts of Charles Darwin in his book The Expression of 0:04:08.600 --> 0:04:11.360 the Emotions in Man and Animals. He uh, he talked 0:04:11.400 --> 0:04:14.760 about the rubbing of noses as an alternative to the kiss, 0:04:14.760 --> 0:04:17.760 practiced for instance among the Inuits, where we get the 0:04:17.800 --> 0:04:21.159 idea of the Eskimo kiss the rubbing of the noses. Um. 0:04:21.200 --> 0:04:23.800 And you see also across Africa, the Pacific and in 0:04:23.800 --> 0:04:27.080 the America's um plenty of the examples of people that 0:04:27.200 --> 0:04:32.440 didn't really do the kiss until Europeans introduced it to them. Yeah, 0:04:32.800 --> 0:04:37.640 although especially with with the nezzling of noses, that is 0:04:37.680 --> 0:04:41.919 an intimate act, it's just not as much of a 0:04:42.080 --> 0:04:48.520 bacterial exchange. And I'm even thinking about Hawaiian culture in which, um, 0:04:48.560 --> 0:04:50.719 there's this bowing of the heads next to each other 0:04:50.760 --> 0:04:52.799 and you exchange a breath, so you come very close 0:04:52.839 --> 0:04:55.479 to each other. The idea is that you're you're you're 0:04:55.600 --> 0:04:59.480 meeting each other and taking in a breath. And uh, 0:04:59.640 --> 0:05:03.400 when some of the European explorers showed up, they wouldn't 0:05:03.440 --> 0:05:06.760 do this with the Hawaiian people, and they became known 0:05:06.800 --> 0:05:10.600 as how he's h A O l e. The no breathers, 0:05:11.320 --> 0:05:14.720 that they wouldn't get that close to each other in exchange. 0:05:15.240 --> 0:05:18.120 This moment, I was reading that during the ravages of 0:05:18.120 --> 0:05:21.719 the Black Death fourteenth century Europe, that you saw kissing 0:05:22.240 --> 0:05:25.240 falling out of fashion because obviously there's a lot of 0:05:25.279 --> 0:05:27.479 Black Death going along around, so you kind of cut 0:05:27.520 --> 0:05:32.479 back on some of your your interpersonal physical touching. But uh, 0:05:32.560 --> 0:05:36.120 while kissing fell away, licking, sniffing and nibbling of the 0:05:36.160 --> 0:05:39.719 eyebrows comes into play as an alternative, which, again to 0:05:39.760 --> 0:05:43.359 your point, kind of fills the same void, the close 0:05:43.720 --> 0:05:48.000 intimate physical contact that that makes up for the locking 0:05:48.040 --> 0:05:49.960 of lips. Right, So, even though there may not be 0:05:50.040 --> 0:05:53.800 that specific expression of kissing, there are other expressions like 0:05:53.839 --> 0:05:58.120 the nuzzling of eyebrows. Yeah, yeah, wow, I feel about that. 0:05:58.279 --> 0:06:00.719 It sounds kind of hard to do. I mean, especially 0:06:00.760 --> 0:06:04.160 depending on the how big the nose is. Like, if 0:06:04.200 --> 0:06:07.359 you have like flatter nose, I feel like the otherwise 0:06:07.400 --> 0:06:09.080 you just have to you have to navigate around a 0:06:09.080 --> 0:06:11.200 lot of nose in some cases. All I'm saying, yeah, 0:06:11.240 --> 0:06:13.320 my kid and husband are in for a treat tonight. 0:06:13.960 --> 0:06:17.080 I'm gonna see how the nuzzling of eyebrows goes. Um. Well, 0:06:17.120 --> 0:06:19.160 here's the deal with kissing. Though. It is such an 0:06:19.200 --> 0:06:22.000 important feature of the way that we communicate that there 0:06:22.120 --> 0:06:26.520 is actually a field of study of it called philomatology, 0:06:27.600 --> 0:06:30.599 and those people who are committed to studying kissing have 0:06:30.760 --> 0:06:34.359 brought us a bunch of information about its effects on 0:06:34.560 --> 0:06:37.120 the brain and the body, because if you think about it, 0:06:37.120 --> 0:06:39.560 it is really a full body event when you have 0:06:39.680 --> 0:06:42.800 a good smooch going on. It's true. Yeah, I mean, 0:06:42.960 --> 0:06:45.200 just start breaking it down on a physical level, and 0:06:45.200 --> 0:06:47.760 just not a physical level without getting into you know, 0:06:47.760 --> 0:06:51.680 the nervous system and hormones and what have you. Um, 0:06:51.760 --> 0:06:54.800 I think just in terms, for instance, of the of 0:06:54.839 --> 0:06:59.599 the muscles, right, you have the orbicularious oris, and this 0:06:59.720 --> 0:07:01.719 runs around the outside of your mouth. Yeah, this is 0:07:01.760 --> 0:07:05.520 if you push your lips together, it's kind of hard 0:07:05.520 --> 0:07:08.200 to talk like that, kind of like a pucker those 0:07:08.279 --> 0:07:11.320 that's the bricky lorius. Okay, so that's the big one. 0:07:11.360 --> 0:07:13.240 That's I mean that we're gonna discuss. There are a 0:07:13.320 --> 0:07:15.320 lot of additional muscles, but that's one of the main 0:07:15.400 --> 0:07:17.880 ones that you're flexing when you go in for a smooch, 0:07:18.600 --> 0:07:20.800 because then you have several other muscles around the lips 0:07:20.800 --> 0:07:24.760 that are moving. You have the zygomaticus major the zygomaticus minor, 0:07:25.080 --> 0:07:26.760 you want to use them both of course. Also what 0:07:26.840 --> 0:07:29.160 we're talking about thirty four different muscles here involved in 0:07:29.200 --> 0:07:32.480 the smooch, Yeah, and about a hundred and twelve postural muscles. 0:07:32.520 --> 0:07:34.600 So we think of your neck, back, and your chest 0:07:34.800 --> 0:07:40.080 muscles all being engaged in a full on assault kiss. Yeah. 0:07:40.200 --> 0:07:42.680 Some of the X ray images we're looking at when 0:07:42.720 --> 0:07:45.640 we're putting together this podcast, and indeed the image that 0:07:45.680 --> 0:07:48.640 should be the the cover image for this episode on 0:07:48.680 --> 0:07:50.960 the landing page for this episode of Stuff to Blow 0:07:51.000 --> 0:07:55.880 Your Mind. Uh, you get this sense of this muscular face, 0:07:56.080 --> 0:07:59.560 this communication array that we use to communicate and interact 0:07:59.560 --> 0:08:02.240 with the world. Then it's all. It's all involved in 0:08:02.240 --> 0:08:05.200 this kiss, just on a muscular level, it is, and 0:08:05.240 --> 0:08:09.200 it's exquisitely sensitive stuff going on here, because if you 0:08:09.240 --> 0:08:12.360 think about it, it it all begins with the thinnest layer 0:08:12.440 --> 0:08:14.200 of skin on our body. And of course I'm talking 0:08:14.240 --> 0:08:18.000 about lips, which are among the most densely populated with 0:08:18.040 --> 0:08:22.160 sensory neurons of any body region and as a result, 0:08:22.240 --> 0:08:25.200 or about one hundred to two hundred times more sensitive 0:08:25.240 --> 0:08:27.440 than the fingertips. To think of that, that just that 0:08:27.520 --> 0:08:32.520 initial meeting of the lips is causing a lot of 0:08:32.600 --> 0:08:36.480 data to be uploaded to your brain and carried there, 0:08:36.520 --> 0:08:39.880 which is creating this cascading effect in your body. Yeah, 0:08:39.880 --> 0:08:42.000 a lot of its subconscious as we'll get too into 0:08:42.120 --> 0:08:44.960 as well. They do have nerves. They fire off five 0:08:45.000 --> 0:08:48.680 of our twelve cranial nerves. Uh, So you have all 0:08:48.679 --> 0:08:52.320 this this information firing through the nervous system, sensory information 0:08:52.320 --> 0:08:56.199 going to the brain for processing. Yeah, and that's right. 0:08:56.400 --> 0:09:01.280 So it's shuttling on all sorts of messages um about temperature, tastes, 0:09:01.320 --> 0:09:05.719 smell and movements of this entire smooch going on in 0:09:05.800 --> 0:09:09.840 the summato sensory cortex, which extends from one side of 0:09:09.840 --> 0:09:11.960 the brain to the other, and it has a large 0:09:12.120 --> 0:09:14.720 portion that's devoted to picking up signals from the lips, 0:09:14.760 --> 0:09:17.600 the tongue, nose, and cheek areas, and then it maps 0:09:17.600 --> 0:09:21.480 that and in that map, the lips loom really large. 0:09:21.480 --> 0:09:23.679 It's kind of like a neon sign here when you're kissing, 0:09:23.720 --> 0:09:27.240 because the size of each of those represented body parts 0:09:27.360 --> 0:09:30.600 or regions is proportional to the density of its nerve endings. 0:09:30.640 --> 0:09:33.040 So again, as I mentioned, the flips have a ton 0:09:33.080 --> 0:09:36.319 of nerve endings. When they're engaged on that map, it's 0:09:36.360 --> 0:09:39.320 just saying, hey, this is huge, this is important. Yeah. 0:09:39.360 --> 0:09:42.360 It brings me back to the homunculous images that a 0:09:42.360 --> 0:09:45.360 lot of people probably seen, Like not the actual medieval 0:09:46.320 --> 0:09:49.360 alchemical homuncular little dude, Yeah, not the little dude that 0:09:49.400 --> 0:09:52.520 you're growing in a vat. I love that, but the 0:09:52.520 --> 0:09:55.160 representation of the human body as it would appear if 0:09:55.240 --> 0:09:57.640 size was determined by nerve endings. So it's just like 0:09:57.640 --> 0:10:00.440 a little squat little dude with these enormous lips. Oh 0:10:00.520 --> 0:10:03.120 I like that. Yeah. Um, So all of this is 0:10:03.160 --> 0:10:07.200 going on, and as a result, you have neurotransmitters and 0:10:07.240 --> 0:10:11.679 hormones being released, like dopamine. As we know, it's a 0:10:11.840 --> 0:10:15.840 neurotransmitter associated with feelings of deshire and reward, and it 0:10:15.960 --> 0:10:19.440 spikes in response to novel experiences, which is interesting because 0:10:19.440 --> 0:10:21.720 that sort of explains why a kiss with someone new 0:10:21.800 --> 0:10:24.960 can feel so special. Yeah, there's a little bit of 0:10:25.000 --> 0:10:28.080 the butterflies and the nerves going on, but also this 0:10:28.200 --> 0:10:30.360 is new data that you're taking and that's really making 0:10:30.360 --> 0:10:32.679 the dopamine thing. Your brain is saying, my tongue has 0:10:32.720 --> 0:10:34.960 never been inside this mouth before. There's all sorts of 0:10:35.000 --> 0:10:39.520 new information the process. And kissing also stimulates adrenaline, which 0:10:39.559 --> 0:10:43.600 helps our bodies to anticipate what might occur next. And yeah, 0:10:43.600 --> 0:10:46.520 I mean it's all part of that. That's that stereotypical 0:10:46.679 --> 0:10:49.679 passionate kiss. You know, if you're watching the film and 0:10:49.720 --> 0:10:51.800 you see two people just sort of having this very 0:10:51.880 --> 0:10:55.840 stale moment together locking lips, you're not buying it, you know, 0:10:55.840 --> 0:10:58.319 they're not They're not releasing adrenaline, that's not getting them 0:10:58.360 --> 0:11:02.520 ramped up. Yeah. It reminds me also of Gustav Climpse 0:11:02.720 --> 0:11:07.000 the kiss, which is that all enfolding and encompassing kiss. 0:11:07.040 --> 0:11:10.200 That's you know, in the representation of two people kissing, 0:11:11.040 --> 0:11:15.880 just this ornate display of colors and what looks like 0:11:15.920 --> 0:11:18.199 sensations in that painting. Yeah, I mean they the two 0:11:18.240 --> 0:11:21.320 individuals in a really bassionate kiss should look like they 0:11:21.320 --> 0:11:23.760 are trying to eat each other with their mouths. Yeah. 0:11:23.880 --> 0:11:27.400 It should become like a auaborous thing. Yeah yeah, um, alright, 0:11:27.440 --> 0:11:30.920 so we also have heart rates increasing and oxygen flowing 0:11:30.960 --> 0:11:35.760 more freely through the blood vessels pupils dilating. Its interesting. Yeah, 0:11:35.760 --> 0:11:40.120 this one I read is this supports the Yeah, this 0:11:40.160 --> 0:11:41.840 one I read that might be the reason a lot 0:11:41.840 --> 0:11:45.240 of people close their eyes during a kiss, because otherwise 0:11:45.280 --> 0:11:48.040 you're just staring into like really big, wide, crazy eyes 0:11:48.160 --> 0:11:51.360 the whole time, and that can be awkward. Yeah. All right, 0:11:51.400 --> 0:11:53.559 we're gonna take a quick break. When we get back, 0:11:53.600 --> 0:11:57.040 we're going to talk about the bacterial exchange of a 0:11:57.080 --> 0:12:07.360 good old French kiss. All right, we're back, and this 0:12:07.440 --> 0:12:09.520 is where things are going to get a lot more 0:12:09.559 --> 0:12:11.960 interesting because a lot of what we've covered for sort 0:12:11.960 --> 0:12:13.959 of the basic mechanics of the kiss, and so a 0:12:14.000 --> 0:12:15.480 lot of you are probably thinking, well, of course, a 0:12:15.480 --> 0:12:20.800 lot of muscles are engaged of course, Uh, dopamine, serotonin, adrenaline, 0:12:20.840 --> 0:12:23.760 what have you. Is released that seems to happen in 0:12:23.800 --> 0:12:28.119 any kind of human experience that we've discussed. It's worth discussing, 0:12:28.240 --> 0:12:30.880 right Yeah, Like we we see a piece of chocolate cake, 0:12:31.040 --> 0:12:34.040 same thing happens, right Yeah. But when you start looking 0:12:34.120 --> 0:12:36.960 at the bacterial level here, when you start looking at 0:12:37.360 --> 0:12:42.839 the kiss as a convergence of microbiomes, that's where things 0:12:42.920 --> 0:12:46.160 start really getting trippy and taking us a lot, a 0:12:46.160 --> 0:12:49.720 lot further from the realm of passionate Valentine's Day kisses 0:12:49.800 --> 0:12:53.760 and Hollywood, uh hero saves the Day kisses. Yeah, this 0:12:53.800 --> 0:12:55.600 is where we're going to take that kiss and just 0:12:55.760 --> 0:12:58.719 make it the anti Valentine's kiss right now. And we'll 0:12:58.760 --> 0:13:01.800 do that by discussing it is in it because you've 0:13:01.840 --> 0:13:06.360 got that saliva, and you've got mucus membranes, and that's 0:13:06.400 --> 0:13:10.600 in about nine milli milli leaders of water and about 0:13:10.640 --> 0:13:15.760 point seven milligrams of that protein, point one eight milligrams 0:13:15.760 --> 0:13:19.480 of organic compounds delicious, and point seven one milligrams of 0:13:19.520 --> 0:13:21.600 different fats. And then you have a little bit of 0:13:21.640 --> 0:13:26.439 sodium chloride at point four or five milligrams and maybe 0:13:26.520 --> 0:13:30.360 even up to seven different types of bacteria. And although 0:13:30.440 --> 0:13:33.720 it's it's you know, somewhat rare, it's possible to transmit 0:13:33.880 --> 0:13:38.320 mononucleosis herpie simplex one in gastric ulcers. So those are 0:13:38.360 --> 0:13:41.599 a couple of examples of germs that can be swapped 0:13:41.880 --> 0:13:45.760 and lurking in your kisses mouth. It's basically two train 0:13:45.800 --> 0:13:48.000 cars arriving at the station at the same time, and 0:13:48.040 --> 0:13:51.360 they both unload, and it's just people crossing each other 0:13:51.480 --> 0:13:54.640 to get onto each each train, which is you basically 0:13:54.679 --> 0:14:00.280 just describe the study about the French kiss? Uh would was? 0:14:00.520 --> 0:14:02.560 I love that there's even a study about a French 0:14:02.640 --> 0:14:05.720 kiss and I love that. Um. They were cruited twenty 0:14:05.760 --> 0:14:10.480 one couples in this study and had them snug for 0:14:10.520 --> 0:14:13.800 science essentially. Yeah, and this covered people between the ages 0:14:13.800 --> 0:14:15.800 of seventeen and forty five, so it's not just a 0:14:15.800 --> 0:14:18.280 matter of finding a bunch of young kids and getting 0:14:18.280 --> 0:14:20.440 them to smooch. It's so it's a little more varied 0:14:20.480 --> 0:14:25.520 than that. Um. And before they locked lips, the participants 0:14:25.680 --> 0:14:28.480 were asked to swab out to measure the amount and 0:14:28.520 --> 0:14:30.760 the kinds of bacteria presence. You're getting a good idea 0:14:31.040 --> 0:14:34.080 what the current population is inside of mouth A and 0:14:34.160 --> 0:14:37.760 mouth B and C and D yeah, baseline. Yeah. And 0:14:37.760 --> 0:14:40.520 then at this point they asked one member of each 0:14:40.640 --> 0:14:46.200 kissing couple to eat some probiotic yogurt now. And the 0:14:46.240 --> 0:14:50.840 reason here is because this contains strains of Lactobacillus and 0:14:50.880 --> 0:14:55.440 bifeto bacteria serve as markers to look for in the kissy. Yeah, 0:14:55.480 --> 0:14:58.560 that's right, because they know that. The researchers know that 0:14:58.760 --> 0:15:04.320 normally saliva way contain about point one of Lacto basilius 0:15:05.000 --> 0:15:10.280 and biphobacteria. But after these these couples kissed and they 0:15:10.440 --> 0:15:15.320 exchanged their content, it was found out that the bacteria 0:15:15.360 --> 0:15:18.640 in the non yogurt drinking partner rose to point by 0:15:18.880 --> 0:15:23.200 four and this led the researchers to estimate that each 0:15:23.920 --> 0:15:28.400 intimate liplocked and tonguelocked kiss that can last ten seconds 0:15:28.520 --> 0:15:33.240 or more will transfer about eighty million bacteria into your 0:15:33.280 --> 0:15:37.200 partner's mouth. Okay, so people are probably wondering at this 0:15:37.240 --> 0:15:38.880 point is that a good thing or a bad thing, 0:15:38.920 --> 0:15:40.720 because it might sound if you, especially if you're a 0:15:40.760 --> 0:15:43.480 little more on the germophobic side of things and maybe 0:15:43.480 --> 0:15:47.760 a little adverse to kissing strangers. On the bus already. 0:15:47.800 --> 0:15:51.040 This might sound like just an unnecessary invasion of your 0:15:51.040 --> 0:15:54.200 mouth space. It does. It sounds a little terrible, like 0:15:54.240 --> 0:15:55.800 why would we do this in the first place, But 0:15:55.840 --> 0:15:57.480 the fact of the matter is is that the higher 0:15:57.520 --> 0:16:01.720 the diversity of your microbi I am in your mouth, well, 0:16:01.760 --> 0:16:05.040 the better it is for you. Okay, So the more kisses, 0:16:05.040 --> 0:16:07.640 the better, The more passionate the better. I mean, I 0:16:07.680 --> 0:16:12.000 wouldn't know, if someone has, you know, an outbreak around 0:16:12.000 --> 0:16:14.120 their mouth, I wouldn't go kissing on them, or if 0:16:14.120 --> 0:16:17.920 someone is sneezing or you know, I wouldn't pursue you know, 0:16:18.640 --> 0:16:23.800 certain circumstances kissing. But yeah, in general, mean, what doesn't 0:16:23.880 --> 0:16:26.120 kill us makes us stronger, right, Okay. So if yeah, 0:16:26.280 --> 0:16:29.120 so the opportunity for a kiss comes about and it's 0:16:29.120 --> 0:16:32.120 like you would have taken it anyway, definitely go in 0:16:32.200 --> 0:16:35.480 and happy kiss because there's a potential health benefit there possibly, 0:16:35.520 --> 0:16:38.040 But don't hold us to that. All right, We're gonna 0:16:38.040 --> 0:16:39.960 do another break and when we come back, we're going 0:16:40.000 --> 0:16:42.120 to get into the nitty gritty or we're going to 0:16:42.160 --> 0:16:45.960 get into the reasoning behind the kiss and and again, 0:16:46.000 --> 0:16:57.200 because it's going to get into it even Traz your territory. 0:16:58.280 --> 0:17:02.440 All right, we are back. Why do we kiss? Propert Lamb? Well, 0:17:02.480 --> 0:17:05.560 there are a few possibilities, right Um. One of the 0:17:05.600 --> 0:17:08.080 big ones out there, and we touched on a little 0:17:08.119 --> 0:17:11.040 bit already, is that it's just something we started doing 0:17:11.080 --> 0:17:12.720 and that we learned. And you can point to those 0:17:12.720 --> 0:17:15.560 ten percent of humans that don't kiss and say, well, 0:17:15.560 --> 0:17:19.760 it's it's evidently not really a human thing across the board. 0:17:20.000 --> 0:17:22.879 So is it really in a human behavior or is 0:17:22.920 --> 0:17:25.159 it just something we saw on TV? Now I had 0:17:25.160 --> 0:17:26.639 to think about this one a bit and imagine most 0:17:26.680 --> 0:17:28.720 of you can can relate to this, like think back 0:17:29.440 --> 0:17:31.960 to your your first kiss, or even just the first 0:17:32.000 --> 0:17:34.800 time you wanted to kiss somebody, like why did you 0:17:34.840 --> 0:17:36.800 want to kiss them? Like? What was it? Just because 0:17:36.800 --> 0:17:39.320 you saw it on a million movies and TV shows 0:17:39.320 --> 0:17:41.440 prior to that, and you saw it on every advertisement 0:17:41.680 --> 0:17:44.800 because especially here in the U S, it's it's everywhere 0:17:44.840 --> 0:17:48.520 in Western culture, it's the kisses everywhere? So am I 0:17:48.600 --> 0:17:50.680 just picking up on all those signals and thinking That's 0:17:50.800 --> 0:17:53.160 what I'm supposed to do, that is what is expected 0:17:53.200 --> 0:17:56.400 of me. I feel like at first it's a familiar thing, right, 0:17:56.720 --> 0:17:59.280 Like I look at that with my daughter who's just 0:17:59.320 --> 0:18:02.920 started kissing or friends at age four, no matter what, 0:18:03.080 --> 0:18:05.640 because it was her expression of love. And now she's 0:18:05.680 --> 0:18:07.720 six and she's just had her first kiss from a 0:18:07.760 --> 0:18:11.720 boy or however she's casting it. And she also has 0:18:11.760 --> 0:18:15.840 watched a lot of different things that are depicting kisses 0:18:16.000 --> 0:18:20.800 among opposite gendered people. I mean, I mean, she's not 0:18:20.800 --> 0:18:23.480 watching soap operas or anything, but she's watching Ninjago, and 0:18:23.560 --> 0:18:25.280 you know, two of the characters have a little peck 0:18:25.280 --> 0:18:28.680 on the cheek or something. Um, So, in that respect, 0:18:28.720 --> 0:18:31.520 I see it as cultural. However, it's not that easy 0:18:31.600 --> 0:18:34.879 just to say that's the answer, right, So if we 0:18:34.920 --> 0:18:38.400 get into the idea that it is instinctive, they're they're 0:18:38.480 --> 0:18:43.080 roughly three different hypotheses for why do we kiss to arouse? 0:18:43.800 --> 0:18:47.119 Obviously sort of the ramping up to the actual uh 0:18:47.440 --> 0:18:51.720 genetic genetic act of breeding with another person. Um, it's 0:18:51.760 --> 0:18:54.520 also the possibility that it's all about just cementing the relationship. 0:18:54.560 --> 0:18:56.800 And again it has to do with with with with 0:18:56.880 --> 0:19:03.960 mate bonding or essentially testing out of a potential mate 0:19:04.240 --> 0:19:07.480 kind of a genetic test. And this is where things 0:19:07.480 --> 0:19:09.800 get really fascinating. Yeah, and I did want to mention 0:19:09.840 --> 0:19:12.200 too before we kind of dive into those topics when 0:19:12.280 --> 0:19:15.280 when we talk about it being learned. Um, there is 0:19:15.359 --> 0:19:19.080 a British zoologist and author, Desmond Morris, who in the 0:19:19.160 --> 0:19:22.560 nineteen sixties first proposed that kissing could have evolved from 0:19:22.560 --> 0:19:25.880 the practice in which primate mothers chewed food for their 0:19:25.880 --> 0:19:29.359 young and then fed the mouth to mouth, so preasticating food. 0:19:29.800 --> 0:19:31.680 And I feel like we talked about this, Yeah, we've 0:19:31.720 --> 0:19:34.679 talked about I feel like we've talked about that in 0:19:34.800 --> 0:19:39.640 terms of passing on beneficial bacteria to the young as well. Again, 0:19:39.880 --> 0:19:43.240 mouth to mouth contact comes down to bacteria and the 0:19:43.280 --> 0:19:48.840 microbiome and and very minute data passed between mother and child, 0:19:48.920 --> 0:19:53.040 between two mates, etcetera. So evolutionary biology might say something 0:19:53.320 --> 0:19:55.320 along the lines of, so if chimps do it, so 0:19:55.440 --> 0:19:58.720 two could have our hamt id, and so might we. 0:19:59.080 --> 0:20:01.240 And in fact, they're are a plenty of other cultures 0:20:01.280 --> 0:20:03.359 today that will actually do that to cheat their food 0:20:03.359 --> 0:20:05.840 for their baby and instead of using the grinder or something, 0:20:06.400 --> 0:20:09.560 cheat some food for my son before, I mean, not 0:20:09.560 --> 0:20:13.120 not super recently, but it's been done. I mean because 0:20:13.119 --> 0:20:16.560 he's like sixteen now, right, but you know, you find 0:20:16.560 --> 0:20:18.240 yourself in those situations where it's like, all right, I 0:20:18.240 --> 0:20:20.800 could get out a knife and and cut this in 0:20:20.840 --> 0:20:22.480 half for him, or I can just bite the thing 0:20:22.520 --> 0:20:25.560 in half and give him part of it. Why not? Sure? 0:20:25.680 --> 0:20:28.000 And I mean right, it's a convenient thing. And then 0:20:28.040 --> 0:20:30.840 you put the nursing equation with us, which it really 0:20:30.840 --> 0:20:34.320 gets sort of interesting here because then the child may 0:20:34.359 --> 0:20:38.080 be learning to associate lip pressure with a loving act. Now, 0:20:38.160 --> 0:20:41.080 consider that two thirds of all people turn their head 0:20:41.119 --> 0:20:44.280 to the right when kissing. And this is according to 0:20:44.359 --> 0:20:49.080 psychologists on your constrick of your university in Germany. And 0:20:49.080 --> 0:20:51.520 now stay with me. Why does that matter? Because this 0:20:51.720 --> 0:20:55.960 behavior may mirror the head turning preference observed in babies 0:20:56.000 --> 0:21:02.800 when their breastbed. Huh huh it is. It's a hum moment, right, 0:21:02.840 --> 0:21:05.560 It's something to consider, just the whole right handed thing. 0:21:05.600 --> 0:21:08.520 Like I'm trying to think back on and every kiss 0:21:08.520 --> 0:21:11.359 I've ever had if I turned to the right, and 0:21:11.400 --> 0:21:12.919 I guess that means that the other person turned to 0:21:12.920 --> 0:21:15.800 the right too, right, because yeah, I know, againe it 0:21:15.800 --> 0:21:19.439 agether another test from my husband and my daughter running tonight. 0:21:20.359 --> 0:21:22.480 So anyway, just a couple of things to think about 0:21:22.600 --> 0:21:25.359 But there are other reasons that we do this. Indeed, 0:21:25.359 --> 0:21:27.280 and this is where it comes back to that old song. 0:21:27.800 --> 0:21:30.320 It's in his kiss, right, like if he loves you 0:21:30.440 --> 0:21:34.800 or something, it's in his kiss. That's good. Yeah, that's 0:21:34.800 --> 0:21:38.680 the one. So in a way, I'm not sure about love. 0:21:39.200 --> 0:21:42.479 Love is a whole different kettle of fish. But the 0:21:42.520 --> 0:21:46.800 idea of just pure genetic mate selection, just the straight 0:21:47.119 --> 0:21:51.720 up genetic mission that that that governs our lives. Human 0:21:51.760 --> 0:21:53.840 a needs to find a human being so that they 0:21:53.840 --> 0:21:57.200 can procreate and and do what their their their genes 0:21:57.240 --> 0:22:00.280 are telling them to do. The idea here is that 0:22:00.320 --> 0:22:03.760 a kiss serves as an act of chemical profiling that 0:22:04.480 --> 0:22:07.680 human will. A sticks its tongue into human bees mouth 0:22:08.160 --> 0:22:11.479 and uh and and basically conducts a core sample of 0:22:11.520 --> 0:22:14.760 what that that person consists of, particularly their immune system 0:22:15.359 --> 0:22:18.400 and uh and then crunches that data to see if 0:22:18.440 --> 0:22:20.359 this is the type of person that they want to 0:22:20.400 --> 0:22:23.640 bread with. It's a real possibility, especially when you consider 0:22:23.720 --> 0:22:26.960 that A two thousand and nine study of one thousand 0:22:27.000 --> 0:22:30.920 college students by Gordon Gallup Jr. A professor of psychology 0:22:30.920 --> 0:22:35.359 at the University of Albany, showed that of men and 0:22:35.520 --> 0:22:38.720 sixty percent of women reported that after feeling attracted to 0:22:38.760 --> 0:22:45.240 someone initially, the attraction ended after the first kiss, so 0:22:45.520 --> 0:22:48.280 that just that one kiss put the kai bosh on. Hey, 0:22:48.320 --> 0:22:50.520 I don't think we should really go any further here. 0:22:50.960 --> 0:22:54.320 As reading that, Cheryl Christian Baum, author of the Science 0:22:54.320 --> 0:22:56.960