Monthly Archives: December 2011

Why Kisses Are Like Potato Chips

Why Kisses Are Like Potato Chips……..

You Never Want To Stop At Just One.

Ever wonder why when your kissing someone you’re attracted to you don’t want to stop? It’s kind of like potato chips; you never want to stop at just one. Some would call that passion; others in the scientific community would call that bio-chemistry mixed with a good dose of old fashioned psychology. Let’s take a look at this, and perhaps propose a little experiment.

Now, as you may know we are all really just bio-electrical engines composed of bio-chemical components…..when you break us down, that’s really all we are, even our emotions are a component of our production of hormones. When you kiss someone, your body release a hormone call Oxytocin into your brains environment (DeAngelis, 2008), some call this the ‘Love Hormone’, but certain scientists have discovered that this is the hormone that creates a feeling of ‘trust’ in a person, that warm, safe feeling when your around someone you love or trust. Of course feeling trust for someone is a good feeling, it makes us feel warm and happy inside….and our bodies naturally crave these happy, warm feelings….and we always want more of them.

Now here comes the experiment proposal I promised you;

We will use 10 people (5 men and 5 women) as our experimental group, 10 people who we are sure have NEVER met each other.

We will use 10 people (5 couples) as our control group, 10 people who we are sure know each other and have stated that are attracted to each other.

The purpose of this experiment is to determine if the act of kissing someone ACTUALLY causes you to want to continue kissing them or if it is the act of kissing someone you are attracted to that causes you to want to continue kissing them.

Methodology:

The methodology behind this experiment is simple, first we would have 5 pairs(1 man, 1 woman)from the control group enter a plain bare room containing two plain wooden chairs(without meeting each other first), ask them to kiss once, for 5 seconds. After each couple finish’s kissing, they will be asked to enter separate rooms and be requested to rate their desire to continue kissing their control partner on a scale from 1 to 9, and how much they trusted this individual.

Second we would have 5 couples (1 man, 1 woman) from the experimental group enter a plain bare room containing two plain wooden chairs (these are individuals who are knowingly attracted to each other), ask them to kiss once, for 5 seconds. After each couple finish’s kissing, they will be asked to enter separate rooms and be requested to rate their desire to continue kissing their control partner on a scale from 1 to 9, and how much they trust this individual.

After both groups finished rating how much they wanted to continue kissing the other person, we would have the same 5 control couples (1 man, 1 woman) enter the same separate rooms as before and then repeat the experiment be requested to rate their desire to continue kissing each other and level of trust in their control partner on a scale from 1 to 9.

Discussion:

It would be interesting to see if the control group (those couples who have never met each other) actually have more of a desire to kiss each other the second time they are alone, rather than the first time when they first meet. Of course there will be certain people who are repressed and uncomfortable kissing someone they don’t already know very well, and I would hope that such people would choose not to participate in an experiment such as this. I would imagine that the control(attracted)group would have little to no reduction to their level of trust in each other or their desire to continue kissing each other. I would also imagine that if the experimental group didn’t kiss more than once, that they would report an increased desire to continue kissing and an increase in level of trust.

So, on to answering our original question…..why is kissing like potato chips, why can’t we stop at just one? It all comes down to addiction. Our bodies become naturally addicted to fat;

…the discovery that we have specific oral sensory receptors that allow us to sense the ‘fattiness’ of food – a function that makes a lot of sense, given that dietary fat provides the densest source of caloric intake. (Sharma, 2011)

Now, Nicholas DiPatrizio and colleagues from the University of California, Irvine, have discovered that these oral dietary fat sensors activate a powerful ‘addiction-type’ mechanism in your gut that serves to promote further fat intake – their study is published in a recent issue of the Proceedings of the US National Academy of Science. (Sharma, 2011)

If that is true, then the reason why kissing is like potato chips is obvious, we as human beings are attracted too anything that feels good, anything that feels safe(for many of us it becomes almost an addiction)…..and if the presence of oxytocin while we are kissing someone causes us to feel good, safe and happy (Fiore, 2006), we are going to want to continue doing what causes those feelings.

I would be interested if anyone has heard of any more research on this subject, please leave a comment.

References

DeAngelis, T. (2008, February). The Two faces of Oxytocin. Retrieved from American Psychological Association: http://www.apa.org/monitor/feb08/oxytocin.aspx

Fiore, K. (2006, October 2). Why Do Humans Kiss? Retrieved from ScienceLine: http://scienceline.org/2006/10/ask-fiore-kiss/

Sharma, A. M. (2011, July 19). How Your Gut Feeds Your Fat Addiction. Retrieved 12 27, 2011, from Arya M. Sharma, MD: http://www.drsharma.ca/obesity-how-your-gut-feeds-fat-addiction.html

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Poor Tom Sawyer

Poor Tom Sawyer

Poor Tom, he was a Working Man who was never In The Mood for fun. Always in a Rush, he would tell people “I’m Finding My Way” when they would ask “What You’re Doing“? Being a salesman of sorts , Tom would always Fly By Night so that he could get a jump on the competition and make that successful final sale In The End (or at least be able to say “I’m doing The Best I Can”).

Tom was always trying to get Something for Nothing on his trips abroad, but on this trip things would be different. His plane landed at 21:12 (that’s 9:12 pm to you and me) after a long Passage to Bangkok. He wasn’t aware of his Circumstances at first, but he knew this was all a Prelude to something odd. Running his fingers through the Permanent Waves in his hair, and remembering that he was here by his own Freewill, Tom stepped forward into the Limelight and faced The Camera Eye.

Tom was now a Digital Man (some thought of him as a Cinderella Man), famous…leaving his sales job behind, living in those Subdivisions…this was the Countdown for his new career! Donning his Red Lenses, he was ready to put those Grand Designs into motion (all that Tom could think of was The Big Money that would come rolling in.) Eventually fame became Second Nature to Tom…as he became a Prime Mover in the entertainment industry, he only had Open Secrets, nothing could be kept under Lock and Key. Presto! Like magic Tom’s name began to spread across the nation like Chain Lightning, and the money came in Hand Over Fist.

After several years, Tom began to question his fame, asking himself “Where’s My Thing?“…eventually not giving himself a Ghost of a Chance of continuing at the pace he had set for himself. Tom was Nobody’s Hero, that was for sure, he had to Stick It Out for no one. He could now be Driven to get back to who he truly was, he would travel Half The World to get back home…and through Time and Motion things became clear…Out of the Cradle Tom was destined to push himself, One Little Victory after another he always had that Secret Touch of calling Unlimited resources and making things happen. But now was the time to stop, he was a Far Cry from The Main Monkey Business he started in Bangkok, his Hope would now rest in what he could build at home.

I guess the story will continue when RUSH puts out another album.

Thank you Geddy, Alex, and Neil for all of this enjoyable music!

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Filed under Music, Psychology