A Kiss is Not Just a Kiss but Secret to a Healthy Relationship, Scientists Discover

A kiss may seem innocent and simple to do, but a new study released Friday suggests a kiss helps people decide whether they have found the right partner or not.

Once a potential mate has passed the test from being just a fling to a serious partner, the role of kissing does not end there. The Oxford University study, which surveyed 900 participants online, found kissing was a way of getting a partner to stick around. The study's participants, mainly from the U.S. and the U.K., provided some interesting bits of information.

The study, published in the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior, found that men and women who were more attractive or had more casual sex partners were more picking when it came to selecting a mate. People in these groups also graded kissing higher than others.

"Kissing in human sexual relationships is incredibly prevalent in various forms across just about every society and culture," said psychologist Rafael Wlodarski, from Oxford University, who led the study.

"Kissing is seen in our closest primate relatives, chimps and bonobos, but it is much less intense and less commonly used," he said.

"So here's a human courtship behavior which is incredibly widespread and common and, in extent, is quite unique. And we are still not exactly sure why it is so widespread or what purpose it serves."

The study noted that kissing was especially important to women in long-term relationships. The researchers suggested this may be because it plays a role in increasing feelings of affection and attachment among couples.

The researchers found the key to a fulfilling and healthy long-term relationship is to kiss frequently and intimately. Concurrently, couples who merely had a lot of sex with little to no kissing, tended to have a shorter and more unstable relationship.  Kissing does play a role in increasing feelings of affection and attachment among couples, the researchers suggest, which can lead to an increase in love for their significant other.

"There seems to be something special about kissing,"  Wlodarski told NPR.