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This study provides a descriptive account of kissing behavior in a large sample of undergraduate college students and considers kissing in the context of both short-term and long-term mating relationships. Kissing was examined as a mate assessment device, a means of promoting pair bonds, and a means of inducing sexual arousal and receptivity. A total 1,041 college students completed one of three questionnaires measuring kissing preferences, attitudes, styles, and behaviors. Results showed that females place more importance on kissing as a mate assessment device and as a means of initiating, maintaining, and monitoring the current status of their relationship with a long-term partner. In contrast, males place less importance on kissing, especially with short-term partners, and appear to use kissing to increase the likelihood of having sex. The results suggest that kissing may play an important role as an adaptive courtship/mating ritual.

Participants in the present study completed an online questionnaire that assessed empathy for a list of animals and perceived empathic and communicative abilities-anthropomorphic attributions-of said list of animals varying in phylogenetic relatedness to humans. Results showed near-perfect relationships between perceived empathic and communicative variables, and near-perfect relationships between these variables and phylogenetic relatedness to humans. Further, the majority of participants were more likely to use the animate pronouns "he" and "she" versus the inanimate pronoun "it" when referring to all animal exemplars except invertebrates, and this animate pronoun use was highly correlated with phylogenetic relatedness to humans. These data substantiate that the tendency to anthropomorphize varies with a species' genetic relatedness to humans. Further, these data provide evidence for the interconnectedness of empathy and communication and highlight the relationship between these cognitive processes and anthropomorphism. The relationship between anthropomorphism and animal welfare is discussed.