WHEN you kiss someone, do you tilt your head to the right or left?
Onur G眉nt眉rk眉n of the Ruhr University in Bochum, Germany, spied on 124 kissing couples at railway stations, airports, beaches and parks in Germany, the US and Turkey, and found a 2:1 majority tilted to the right.
The ratio matches the number of people who use their right foot, eye or ear rather than their left. These preferences, along with the newly discovered kissing preference, may originate in the womb and in the first six months of life, when babies tend to turn their heads to the right, G眉nt眉rk眉n suggests in Nature (vol 421, p 711).
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He also found it much harder than he expected to gather data. 鈥淐ouples kiss much more rarely than I expected,鈥� he says. 鈥淚n Chicago O鈥橦are I once waited five hours for two data points.鈥�