She walks through the door. You already know this story. But here's what you don't: the femme fatale isn't a Hollywood invention — and she was never warning you about her. Heliox explores anthropologist William Jankowiak's landmark cross-cultural study of dangerous-woman folklore across 84 global societies, from the Igbo of West Nigeria to Aboriginal Australia to modern South Korean farms. The finding that changes everything? In 89% of those cultures, the man wasn't destroyed because he wanted a fling. He wanted to fall in love.

A recent study published in the journal Social Sciences has found that stories about dangerous, attractive women are almost universal across different cultures. These cautionary tales suggest that men tend to fear the risks of emotional attachment and heartbreak just as much as they are drawn to physical beauty. Ultimately, this research indicates that the famous “femme fatale” character stems from human evolutionary psychology rather than simply local cultural attitudes.

Kissing, for all popularity, is a bit of a mystery. Scientists have long debated when humans’ ancestors first put their lips together, and whether the act is simply a cultural trait. A new study suggests giving someone a peck has a long history, dating up to around 21 million years ago, long before modern humans existed. The work was published in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior on November 19.

The first kiss in history probably took place over 16.9 million years ago — long before humans even existed, a new study suggests.

We do it sitting in a tree, under the mistletoe, at midnight to ring in the new year. In fairytales, the act transforms frogs into princes and awakens heroines from enchanted slumber. We make up with it, seal with it, and – in Romeo Montague’s case at least – die with it.

Is deep kissing a universal human behavior?

A new study finds that half of human cultures don’t practice romantic lip-on-lip kissing. Animals don’t tend to bother either. So how did it evolve?

Humans are born with instincts for crying and smiling, but not for kissing. Sometime in the past, our ancestors had the idea to smack their mouths together and call it romantic. And though we may not know who gave the first smooch, ancient records of these steamy sessions are helping us piece together when people started locking lips.