themselves, and the same was true for the more traditional, serotonin expressers. But those high in testosterone preferred more estrogen and vice versa.
But there has to be more to it than just pure chemical profiling, right?
Neuroscientist Wendy Hill thinks kissing also plays a role in pair bonding. Now doesn't that sound more romantic?
Maybe, but she studied this idea by asking college-aged couples to do the decidedly unromantic act of making out for 15 minutes in a lab room at the campus infirmary. By comparing blood and saliva samples from before and after the kissing sessions, she discovered that cortisol, a hormone involved in stress, went down in both men and women. Interestingly, kissing boosted the mens' level of oxytocin, which has been linked to pair bonding, but the level dropped slightly in women.
Hill suspects that despite the flowers and music she provided, this could be because the college health center is where the students go when they feel sick, not sexy, which may affect women more than men.
So Hill is currently running a similar study in a far more seductive setting...an academic building.
Though she hasn't yet analyzed the new oxytocin results, she thinks the couch, light Jazz CD, and electric candles (real candles are against Lafayette College fire regulations) will do the trick.
What other burning questions did journalists have for the philematology experts? Several of them wondered why people are obsessed with oral hygiene. I'm not sure what that says about journalists.
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- Study: Couples Love Kissing Right
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