first kiss went badly. Another survey of over a thousand college students
suggested that more than men, women use kissing as a way to assess
a potential mate – female students were more likely to report making
judgements based on their partners’ breath, taste and teeth, and were less
likely to engage in sex without kissing first.
Whatever the evolutionary reasons for our lip-touching habits, a study
in 2009 suggested that kissing is an ideal stress-reliever. Kory Floyd
and his colleagues at Arizona State University recruited 52 participants
who were either married or living with a partner. Half of them were
instructed to up their kissing time. Six weeks later the kissing group felt
less stressed, happier with their relationship and measures of their blood
lipids suggested they really were more relaxed.
Moving swiftly on from first to last base, scientific insights into orgasm
have increased over recent decades, in part because of the growing use
of drugs for treating depression and psychosis. Certain anti-depressants
that increase the availability of the neurotransmitter serotonin, have
been shown to suppress orgasm – a side-effect called anorgasmia. This
has led to suggestions that serotonin acts as a kind of orgasm brake, and
there are even anecdotal reports of men using anti-depressants as an
unlicensed treatment for premature ejaculation.
Believe it or not, researchers have even managed to scan the brains of
participants in the throes of an orgasm. For a 2003 paper, neuroscien-
tist Gert Holstege at the University of Groningen scanned eight men’s
brains whilst their female partners masturbated them to ejaculation. The
Women, more than men, see kissing as a good way of establishing the quality of a
potential mate.