It's been a while since I've seen a truly silly study -- I feared they were all being sucked into the stimulus package. But here's a beaut:
Wendy Hill, professor of psychology at Lafayette College, Pennsylvania began the research to find out why the mundane physical activity of rubbing lips can elicit such a gratifying emotional response.
Her team tested the levels of two hormones, cortisol and oxytocin, in 15 couples before and after holding hands and kissing.
They found that kissing reduced the levels of cortisol, a stress hormone, in both sexes. But levels of oxytocin, a hormone linked to social bonding that they expected to be boosted by kissing, only rose among the men.
You mean it's not just love? It might really be chemistry? Shocking. Kissing reduces a stress-inducing hormone in both men and women, but increases a hormone linked to bonding only in men? Does that mean it takes women longer to respond to kissing? Unbelievable. All I can say is, send a hormone surge across my gluteus maximus and call me honey.
