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The right way to kissSome smooching scenarios sealed before birth
By Marsha Walton
(CNN) -- Many young people learn about kissing by reading teen magazines, watching movies, or comparing notes with friends. But one scientist says some smooching techniques may be locked in before birth. During two-and-a-half years of research, bio-psychologist Onur Gunturkun developed a keen eye for kissers. As he waited for planes and trains during his frequent travels, Gunturkun hung out at the arrivals area, observing hundreds of re-uniting couples kissing. "I tried to be as discreet as possible," he laughed. He never approached the kissers, he just watched the way their heads turned. He found couples turn their heads to the right twice as often as they do to the left. "We humans are right-footed, right-handed, right-eared, and right-eyed. I want to know why," said Gunturkun, whose research appeared in the Valentine week edition of the British journal Nature. Birds, humans, and many other vertebrate embryos show a preference to turn their head to the right, rather than to the left, during the final weeks of gestation, Gunturkun said. In birds, that's because a right turn of the head before hatching results in a higher amount of light and stimulation. Gunturkun theorizes that if a fetus turns its head to the left in the womb, that person will tend to turn his or her head to the left when it comes time to start kissing. But while newborn humans show a right head-turning preference, that preference seems to disappear by the time the baby is 3 to 6 months old. It's not until years later that the preference for the right hand, foot, ear, and eye is established. "I never believed that our head-turning preference to the right disappears, but I needed to test adult humans in a situation where they have to 'decide for a side.' So, I observed kissing pairs," said Gunturkun, who works at Ruhr University in Bochum, Germany. How did he do it?After filtering out kissing couples who may have turned a certain way because of bags or packages they were carrying, Gunturkun reported on 124 couples (with ages ranging from 13 to 70) he had observed in the United States, Germany, and Turkey. Eighty of the kissing couples turned their heads to the right, 44 to the left. "That makes perfect sense," said Brenda Ross, who produces the dating guide and forum on the advice Web site about.com. "Sometimes you'll turn to the left for variety, but it seems you go back because the right is more natural," she said. Ross dispenses dating tips on the site that include sections on "how to kiss," "kissing games," and "first kiss stories." On the Web site's teen advice pages, there's a warning about the necessity of the head turn, without suggesting any particular scenario. "Tilt your head slightly to one side, so your noses won't get in the way." The Nature study says kissing side preference is not related to handedness. The ratio of right-handers to left-handers worldwide is about eight to one, but that's likely tied to culture and reality more than anything else, says Gunturkun. Because so many tools and products are created for right-handers, many lefties become ambidextrous just to cope. Gunturkun says there is much more to study in the field of right and left hand differences, and that asymmetry may provide clues to humans' ability to plan, decide, and understand the world around them.
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