Why you should never kiss a stranger on the cheek

New research shows when it comes to greeting strangers, people are generally only comfortable shaking hands and don’t like to be touched on any other body part.
The study of 1300 people from the UK, Finland, France, Italy and Russia, suggests you should err on the side of caution when it comes to greeting new acquaintances.
“I would guess that kissing a stranger on the cheek would still make a lot of people uncomfortable”, lead researcher Oxford University’s Professor Robin Dunbar told The Telegraph of the research findings.
“But with modern life it has become as conventional as a handshake and so no longer seems overly-familiar, especially if you have been introduced by a friend.”
The study published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in America (PNAS) asked people to indicate on a “body map” where they were comfortable being touched.
Researchers found the more emotionally close you were to someone, the more access they could have to your body.
As expected, people were most physically comfortable with their romantic partners. Women also generally enjoyed being touched on their arms and some parts of their head by friends and family, but men were not as comfortable with this.
As could be expected the main “taboo” area for women was their genitals, which they were not comfortable with other men or strangers touching.
In contrast, men categorised genital contact with female strangers as “least comfortable” but not “taboo”. This generosity did not extend to male strangers though.