Have you ever wondered why you close your eyes when you kiss? It’s as if in order to truly enjoy the kiss you need to shut your eyes as tight as possible. Why? Besides the fact that it would be completely awkward to stare into your partners eyes while making out, that is.
Psychologists Sandra Murphy and Polly Dalton conducted a study that shows, in order to physically enjoy a kiss, you actually do have to close your eyes.
Murphy and Dalton tested a group of people by giving them visual tasks on a screen. While they were completing these tasks a small vibration was administered to their hands. The study showed that while the visual tasks got more complicated more and more people stopped noticing the vibration. But, the less difficult the task the more people noticed the vibration.
It’s the same when we kiss. “One possible implication of this is that closing our eyes will reduce visual demands, so this may increase our sensitivity to the tactile sensation of kiss” stated Polly Dalton. Simply put, closing your eyes makes the kiss better. Try kissing with your eyes wide open and notice how uncomfortable and unenjoyable it actual is. The participants in this study couldn’t feel the vibrations because their eyes were looking at something else and their brains couldn’t handle it all…same goes for when you kiss.
