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"Mouth-to-mouth contact has been observed in a wide variety of animals, including fish, birds, and primates and serves a range of functions, including the assessment of physical abilities and the acquirement of food. However, intimate kissing involving full tongue contact and saliva exchange appears to be an adaptive courtship behavior unique to humankind and is common in over 90% of known cultures, as reported in [1] and references herein."

"Strikingly, 74% of the men reported higher intimate kiss frequencies than the women of the same couple, resulting in a male average of 10 and a female average of five intimate kisses per day (Additional file 3). This probably results from male over reporting, as previously noted in an analysis of self-reports on sexual behavior, including number of partners and frequency of intercourse, in particular among unmarried couples [8]. One report of an average of 50 intimate kisses per day over the last year (Additional file 3) was according to the opinion of the authors unrealistically high, not in agreement with the reported time to latest kiss of 18 h and showed a large discrepancy with the self-reported kiss frequency of his partner of eight intimate kisses per day."