So, this is why everyone tilts their head to the right when kissing

So, leaving aside those less than fond memories of the local teenage disco, chances are you haven't banged heads with someone you're about to kiss in a long time.

Not that you have to think about it too hard, it just sort of happens that way – you'll go one way, they'll go the other and well, you know the rest.

But as it turns out, there's actually a scientific reason why.

New research has found that people are actually hard-wired to tilt their heads to the right when kissing a romantic partner.

Researchers asked 48 married couples in Bangladesh to kiss privately in their own home and compile an independent report on different aspects of the kiss – and the results were very interesting indeed.

The study revealed that men were about 15 times more likely to initiate a kiss with 79 reporting they had done so.

What's more, two thirds of all participants (both initiators and receivers) subconsciously chose to turn their heads to the right when going in for the kill.

Dr Rezaul Karim, from the department of psychology at the University of Dhaka said:

“This is the first study to show sex differences in the initiation of kissing, with males more likely being the initiator, and also that the kiss initiators’ head-turning direction tends to modulate the headturning direction in the kiss recipients.”

The findings also revealed that the direction the kiss initiator chose strongly predicted that of the recipient, as well as whether the person was right or left handed.

“This further suggests the underlying cognitive mechanisms of the act of kissing and head turning,” the authors said. 

“Though this action tends to be performed intuitively, a decision must be made about the direction to which the partners should lean to kiss each other.”

This study was particularly unique given that kissing is censored from film and television in Bangladesh meaning that the results were in no way influenced by cultural factors or copying.

“Prior works could not rule out cultural learning due to having western samples. It turns out, we as humans are similar even if our social values differ,” Dr Michael Proulx, from the department of psychology at the University of Bath added.

Whatever the reason, we're just glad that kissing-head-collisions aren't a thing we have to worry about.