Cher told us long ago that it’s all in his kiss, but now researchers have dug a little deeper to find what someone’s kiss can really reveal about their feelings.
Looking at over 500 pictures of people kissing, (tough day in the office), researchers studied the different ways people kiss within different relationships, from comparing the difference between lustful, romantic kisses and more parental or platonic pecks.
The study, conducted at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada found trends between the way people show affection (or lack of) in different relationships through kissing.
When it comes to romantic relationships, it was all in the tilt – the tilt to the right, to be precise. The study revealed that a whopping 80 per cent of people turned their head to the right when going in for a romantic kiss with a partner. (You’re tilting your head right now to check, aren’t you?)
Previously it was thought that our head-tilting preference is more like our preferred writing hand – something that just feels more comfortable to us and that we have little control over, but this study proves otherwise, giving more meaning and validation to whether we go left or right.
The researchers explained:
“Kissing requires motor control and is typically motivated by feelings of reward, which could guide more right-turns due to the increased use of the left-hemisphere at the beginning of relationships.
"Right-turned kissing may feel most intuitive onward in the relationship, which would again illustrate that turning direction could be guided by learned behaviours”
However, when it came to family relationships – like showing affection to your little ones or kissing your father on the cheek – the preference was overwhelmingly to turn to the left.
It's thought that this preference delivering comes from a more practical route. The study claims that:
“The position in which parents kiss their children most throughout the beginning of their child’s life is likely while the parent is cradling their infant.
"Parents would predominantly cradle using their left arm, as indicated from the literature on lateral cradling biases, which could encourage parents to turn their face to the same side when kissing their child”
Not sure if someone views you in a romantic way or not? See which way they turn their head next time they go to peck you on the check… It may reveal more that you originally thought!