Science Says You're Probably Inclined To Lean In This Direction When Kissing Someone

Which way do you lean your head when you're about to kiss someone?

Well, if it makes you feel better, I had to pretend like the palm of my hand was a boy and lean toward it to see what direction my head was turning.

All right, now that I admitted I did it, I'll give you a chance to do it yourself (or to kiss a real person if you're, like, into that) and figure out in which direction you tilt your head.

So, which direction was it? To the left or to the right? OR, do you just approach your ~lover~ straight on like a creepy robot?

Well, a new study conducted by an international team of researchers took a deeper look into which way most people lean when they go in for a kiss.

How did they figure it out?

In order to conduct their study, researchers had 48 married couples kiss behind closed doors in their own homes.

After they were done kissing privately, the couples were asked to individually  fill out a survey detailing the kiss.

The study was also conducted in Bangladesh, which is no small deal. Why? Well, kissing in Bangladesh isn't like kissing in the Western world. It's more private.

So, when we study kissing in the Western world, we can chalk up what people do most to them mirroring what they've seen in popular culture. But in Bangladesh, how people kiss can more purely be attributed to what they're biologically inclined to want and do.

What direction did most people lean in?

As it turns out, most people (over two-thirds of them, to be exact) reported leaning toward the right when they kissed.

But there were some other fun kiss facts the researchers came across.

How do we determine the way our heads lean?

Researchers found the kiss initiator played a pretty big part in this, as the person who initiates the kiss is usually the one who determines what direction the couple will lean their heads in.

While kiss initiators tended to lean their head in the same direction as their dominant hand in the study, kiss recipients naturally tended to tilt their head in the same direction (right or left) of the kiss initiator's head, so the kiss wouldn't be uncomfortable.

Researchers believe these findings can give us more information as to the way our brains naturally work when it comes to kissing, and how that's affected (and potentially changed) if we're on the receiving end of a kiss.

Why does this matter?

The study's lead author from the Department of Psychology at the University of Dhaka, Dr. Rezaul Karim, explained the importance of these findings:

This is the first study to show sex differences in the initiation of kissing, with males more likely being the initiator, and also that the kiss initiators' head-turning direction tends to modulate the head-turning direction in the kiss recipients. Based on our prior theoretical work we are also able to make new hypotheses about the underlying neural basis for these behaviours.

The way we turn our heads may seem insignificant to you, but Dr. Karim explains it is "one of the earliest biases seen in development." Basically, your preference for moving your head in a certain direction starts before you're even born, and this is one of the first studies that looks into whether it extends into your adult life.

So, next time you're leaning in for a steamy kiss, pay a little extra attention to which way you're going!