Lips and tongue are erogenous zones that you have fairly fine control over, and aside from feeling nice, pressing your face right up against someone else’s chompers is a sign of mutual vulnerability and trust.

I do it because groceries are expensive and I like to try and pick bits of food off people’s teeth with my tongue. You’d be surprised at how much food is in there sometimes! Found a whole popcorn kernel in my boyfriend’s mouth just yesterday.

Exchanging germs to synchronize antivirus databases

My wife and I do not enjoy kissing, so I would say that it doesn’t necessarily appeal to everyone. It could be the autism, but the physical sensation is not pleasurable for either of us and we have never understood the appeal of this act. It’s jarring. Like nails on chalkboard when tongue is touched.

It’s just part of our mating dance. It feels good and gets us in the mood.

Cheeks are a part of the human body where the different pheromones are easiest to record. They telll information about the immune system, and hold the “personal smell” that everyone has (and which isn’t really a smell at all, because pheromones are observed with a different system than actual smells are). When you get your nose near someone’s cheek, you record a lot of personal data about them in your subconscious.

You receive information about how healthy your children would be likely to be, and also your subconscious gets irrefutable proof of “I am currently very close with person ______.”

Plus the other reasons mentioned here. But the most important one is that it’s a way to get your nose near their cheek.

Gives me happy chemical idk

I’m not a fan, I don’t get anything out of it, as a younger man it was a step you had to do to get further.

My wife talks about it like it’s the best thing ever but for me it’s closer to a chore then an enjoyable experience.

We were watching buffy the vampire slayer the other day and there’s a scene where Buffy and Angel are making out and don’t want to stop, to me that’s so weird

its very sensual for most folks, and extremely intimate.

shit, just last time my wife and I were having sex she was on top and I was so turned on and into her that I asked her to spit in my mouth. never done that before! after I finished I was pretty grossed out by the idea but in the moment I was super into it ¯_(ツ)_/¯

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210813-the-reasons-humans-started-kissing

I was looking for something about sharing antibodies or something to do with disease resistance, but it’s not listed in the article

I’m trying to remember this from a podcast I listened to a few years ago that covered this topic, so I might not have the details exactly right, but if I’m remembering correctly there is at least one evolutionary advantage in that there’s a virus (part of the herpes family of viruses, I think) that is asymptomatic and for the most part harmless, except when a woman contracts it for the first time while pregnant, in which case it can be pretty devastating to fetal development. But if the woman gets gradually exposed to the virus before becoming pregnant then her immune system learns to deal with it and it won’t harm the fetus. Of course that doesn’t explain why humans started kissing in the first place, but it could mean that humans who did engage in kissing may have had a significant breeding advantage.

It’s touching a highly sensitive part of your anatomy to part of another being. This proves that you trust them.

The touch is gentle. This proves that you are to be trusted.

Both contracts are those of mutual safety.

There are multiple types of kissing. There’s the kiss, perhaps on the head, that you might give a pet or a young relative.

And there the other sorts of kisses that would be incredibly inappropriate in those instances because it breaks part of the contract of trust.

But if between consenting individuals who trust each other in other ways, then all is well.

Something something the French something something.

I don’t know. I never kissed

I want to know what she’s been eating