spicedTea

Well, mouth-to-mouth kissing is pretty gross when you think about how much bacteria is transferred between the kissers. In general, I think humans tend to avoid contact with the bodily excretions of other humans due to an innate pathogen aversion. That might contribute to the 'slimy' feeling of kissing outside of a sexual context. The thing about sexual arousal is that a whole bunch of stuff happens physiologically and involving dopamine( which is linked to pleasure) and norephinephrine(fight or flight response), with one side-effect of arousal as weakening feelings of disgust. Romance is kind of similar in that there's some physiological stuff happening along with the release of oxytocin ( which is linked to bonding). So maybe the difference is physiological, along with personal comfort levels of physical intimacy and also ingrained beliefs regarding what acts are considered romantic(and therefore expected to provide some sort of neurogenic reward)? This is just stuff I've gleaned from academic and casual papers. If I didn't feel so lazy, I'd provide more documentation but *shrugs*.