Abstract
When leaning toward a partner for a kiss, the direction that individuals turn their head when planting the kiss is found to vary based on the kiss’s context; romantic kissing between adult couples is consistently directed rightward, though recently, a non-romantic kiss between parent–child couples was observed to be leftward. The current study further examines the lateral head-turning direction between non-romantic couples using a novel context: a first kiss between strangers. Observing strangers kissing was feasible due to a unique social media phenomenon; since 2014, 23 “First Kiss” online videos have emerged which depict kisses facilitated by the video’s director between consenting strangers. The turning direction of 230 kissing couples were coded from the 23 First Kiss videos, and the proportion of right to left turns were almost equal; 51% of couples displayed a right-turn kiss, and 49% conveyed a left-turn kiss. Further, the proportion of right and left turns observed from our sample of strangers kissing were compared to Güntürkün’s (in Nature 421:711, https://www.nature.com/articles/421711a?error=cookies_not_supported&code=b95843e9-bc85-4ce8-91f6-d0b98000b809, 2003) original study that examined authentic kissing between adult couples. A significantly different turning bias was exhibited. Because the kissing criterion was parallel between these studies, our study demonstrates that the context influenced the direction of bias, namely, that of a non-romantic kiss. We discuss the potential role of context and emotional lateralization on kissing laterality, and propose future directions to test these predictions.