(image of magnified heart by ruangrit19 at Freepik.com)
It’s Valentine’s Day, traditionally the day when one expresses their affection to their Heart’s desire.
And it’s not just emotional, but also financial: The National Retail Federation estimates the cost of buying romantic baubles & accoutrements (such as cards, candy, flowers, lingerie, perfume, jewelry, and more) will “reach a record $29.1 billion, surpassing the previous record of $27.5 billion in 2025.“
Lucky ones will be lavished, and luckier ones will get even luckier if the lucky one is suitably impressed by their suitor.
On a day when emotions, and for some the biological urge, can overwhelm prudent fiscal responsibility, here’s my St. Valentine’s gift to you:
St. Valentine’s Day SCIENCE!
From the halcyon days of researchers in the science communities linking every problem faced by Humans on Planet Earth to Global Warming, Wealth Disparity, Racism, Discrimination, one or more Social, Sexual, or Cultural Phobias, or some other condition of “Wokeness”, here’s a classic piece of research published in 2019 linking the amount of kissing between couples to Income inequality.
For those unfamiliar with the GINI Coefficient, it’s a statistical measure of income inequality within a nation or social group, ranging from 0 (where everyone has equal income) to 100 (where one person has all the income and everyone else has nothing).
The GINI Coefficient for the United States is 41.8 – just below the middle – while South Africa has more inequality and the Nordic Countries the least inequality. If you’d like to check out the GINI Coefficient for your country take a look at this website but disregard it’s anti-USA bias.
To view more research by The Human Relationships Laboratory in the Division of Psychology at Abertay University, United Kingdom just click the link. But note that their website doesn’t list any publications after 2019.
Let’s hope the lab didn’t experience the Kiss of Death.
Thanks for Reading!
