Do most cultures kiss romantically, where did the older, much higher estimate come from, how far back does kissing go, and what did college students say? Three studies, from 2015, 2026 and 2007, take those questions in turn.
The short answer
A 2015 study of 168 cultures by William Jankowiak, Shelly Volsche and Justin Garcia, published in American Anthropologist, found the romantic, sexual kiss in 46% of them, which the authors call “a minority of cultures sampled”. They defined it as “lip-to-lip contact that may or may not be prolonged.” Romantic kissing is common, then, but not a human universal.
The sample combined 128 cultures from eHRAF World Cultures, 27 from the Standard Cross Cultural Sample and 13 from the authors’ correspondence with ethnographers. The authors also found that the more socially complex a culture, the more often romantic kissing was present.
Where the older, higher figure came from
Older writing put the share far higher. One example is a 2007 survey of US college students by Susan Hughes and colleagues, whose introduction gives that higher share, citing books from 1970 and 1992. The 2015 authors describe their study as “the first attempt to use a large sample set” to document whether the kiss is present or absent. The older share and the 46% rest on different sources, so the 46% is the 2015 study’s finding, not a sign of decline.
How old is kissing?
A study by Matilda Brindle, Catherine Talbot and Stuart West, in the January 2026 issue of Evolution and Human Behavior, traced kissing across monkeys and apes. It found kissing in most living large apes and, likely, in Neanderthals, and estimated that it first evolved in the large apes’ common ancestor about 21.5 to 16.9 million years ago. The authors add “a major caveat about the quantity of available data at present.”
What college students said in 2007
Hughes, Marissa Harrison and Gordon Gallup Jr. gave questionnaires to 1,041 students in psychology courses at the University at Albany, all 18 or older. Only 5 of them said they had never kissed anyone romantically, and 20% estimated they had kissed more than 20 people. Five out of 1,041 is a small club.
In the first of three questionnaires, women rated a person’s breath as more important than men did when deciding whether to kiss someone. In that questionnaire, 69% of the men and 67% of the women said being a good kisser was not a reason to start a relationship.
The authors note that their sample was mainly college aged students. The 2007 paper also cites a separate, unrelated survey by Gallup that asked 58 men and 122 women about a first kiss: 59% of the men and 66% of the women said they had been attracted to someone, then lost interest after kissing them for the first time. For how people kiss rather than how many, see a kissing expert on how people kiss.
The short version
A 2015 study of 168 cultures found the romantic, sexual kiss in 46% of them, so kissing is common but not universal.
Last checked: 2026-10-21, against the 2015 American Anthropologist abstract, the 2026 Evolution and Human Behavior paper and the 2007 Evolutionary Psychology paper. This article was machine-checked against the sources above and has not been expert-reviewed. Spotted an error or a newer public figure? Please tell us on our contact page with the article link and we will review it.
Sources
- S1 Jankowiak WR, Volsche SL, Garcia JR. “Is the Romantic-Sexual Kiss a Near Human Universal?” American Anthropologist, 2015;117(3):535 to 539. https://doi.org/10.1111/aman.12286 . Abstract from the Kinsey Institute news page and sample note from the Human Relations Area Files record, saved copies accessed Oct 21, 2026.
- S2 Brindle M, Talbot CF, West SA. “A comparative approach to the evolution of kissing.” Evolution and Human Behavior, 2026;47(1):106788. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2025.106788 . Europe PMC full text (PMC7619187), saved copy accessed Oct 21, 2026.
- S3 Hughes SM, Harrison MA, Gallup GG Jr. “Sex Differences in Romantic Kissing among College Students: An Evolutionary Perspective.” Evolutionary Psychology, 2007;5(3). https://doi.org/10.1177/147470490700500310 . Saved text accessed Oct 21, 2026.