CULTURE AND KISSING Kissing crosses cultures. Yet how we do it varies. Imagine yourself kissing someone on the lips. Do you tilt your head right or left? People in Western cultures read from left to right. About two-thirds of Western couples also kiss right, as in William and Kate’s famous kiss and in Auguste Rodin’s sculpture, The Kiss. People reading Hebrew and Arabic read from right to left, and in one study 77 percent of those readers kissed tilting left (Shaki, 2013).

Mark Cuthbert/UK Press Getty Images