Rate Kisses: For Science!

The author of a book-in-progress on The Science of Kissing wants your help:

The Science of Kissing will be an interdisciplinary look at why and how we kiss, drawing on neuroscience, classical history, evolutionary biology, anthropology, and popular culture. Without giving away too much detail, I’ll say that it’s been extremely interesting to compose so far and more fascinating than I ever imagined.  And then I got to thinking…

Why merely report on the science when there are obvious next steps in research? So I did what anyone in my position would. I called up a neuroscientist. The wonderful Dr. David Poeppel has kindly agreed to help me conduct a a cognitive neuroscience experiment next month and now I need you to help us plan the methodology.  Results will be featured in the book!

Here’s what to do: Below the fold you’ll see a 15 photos (labeled A-O) of couples kissing. We need you to help us categorize them into three groups:

1) erotic – passionate/sexually-charged kiss
2) friendship – kiss between friends
3) relationship – affectionate kiss implying commitment

At the link above, you’ll find the series of pictures — and an email address where you can send your results. Kissing is a fascinating topic, and we still don’t really know why we do it. So, help out. It’s for science!